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THE CALL TO UNITY 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
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MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

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TORONTO 



THE CALL TO UNITY 

THE BEDELL LECTURES FOR 1919 

DELIVERED AT KENYON COLLEGE 
MAY 24th AND 25th, 1920 



BY 

WILLIAM T. MANNING, S.T.D., D.C.L. 

Rector of Trinity Church, New York 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1920 

AU rights reserved 



-*& 



Copyright, 1920, 
By THE MACMIIiLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published, December, 1920 



g)CU6043l 3 



m 24 I92Q 



«**» I 



TO 
WILLIAM PORCHER DuBOSE 

WHO 

BY HIS LIFE 

NOT LESS THAN BY HIS TEACHING 

HELPED MANY TO KNOW 

JESUS CHRIST 

AS 

THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE 



PREFACE 

These lectures, delivered some months ago, were put 
in form for publication before the recent meeting of 
the Lambeth Conference. That gathering of the 
Bishops of the Anglican Church has issued a Declara- 
tion on Reunion which will challenge the attention 
of Christians everywhere, and will give new impetus 
to the movement towards unity. 

To the author of these lectures it is reassuring to 
find that what had been written is wholly in accord 
with this latest pronouncement by those entitled to 
speak for the Anglican Communion. Especially it is 
interesting to find that the suggestion, in the fourth 
lecture, as to mutual acceptance of added authoriza- 
tion for the work of the Ministry, is definitely put 
forth in the Lambeth Declaration. 

Among the volumes consulted in connection with 
these lectures there are two to which I feel under spe- 
cial obligation. One of these is The Church and 
Religious Unity, by the ,Revd. Herbert Kelly, a 
masterly and most truly helpful discussion of the 
subject from the Catholic point of view; the other is 
Pathways to Christian Unity, by six distinguished Free 
Church writers, a volume so earnest in its plea for 
unity, and so Christian in its spirit, that it is a refresh- 
ment to one's faith and hope to read it. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Call to Unity I 

II The Present Outlook for Unity 27 

III The Approach to Unity 57 

IV The Call to the Anglican Communion ... 83 



"As being baptized we are all on either side brothers 
and sisters in Christ, we are all at bottom members of the 
universal Church. In this great garden of God let us shake 
hands with one another over the confessional hedges, and 
let us break them down so as to be able to embrace one 
another altogether. . . . Let us examine, compare and in- 
vestigate the matter together, and we shall discover the 
precious pearl of religious peace and Church unity, and 
then join our hands and forces in cleansing and cultivating 
the garden of the Lord, which is overgrown with weeds. " 

John J. I. Von Dollinger. 

The Church is divinely organized and constituted Unity 
— a unity within which by free interrelation and interaction 
different points of view, impressions, emphases, perspectives, 
and so theories, doctrines, systems, etc., may correct, sup- 
plement, and complete one another and bring all to the essen- 
tial and sufficient unity that not only belongs to them but 
can come only through their all-sided contributions. 

Incidentally we may say of Sects in Christianity that their 
evil is expressed in the word itself: they are organized and 
isolated differences and diversities. Their partial and em- 
phasized good is withdrawn from communication to and 
influence upon others; their deficiencies, ignorances or er- 
rors are removed from supplementing or correction by others. 
They are destructive of that Oneness in Christ which is the 
essence and definition of Christianity, which is ours in spite 
of our differences, and within which our differences would 
quickly melt down into not merely pardonable, or permissible, 
but even contributory and completive diversities. 

William Porcher DuBose. 



THE CALL TO UNITY 



THE CALL TO UNITY 

The whole world to-day is moved by the thought of 
fellowship. It is not surprising therefore that we feel 
more than ever the incongruity of our lack of fellow- 
ship in the Christian Church. The desire for fellow- 
ship among Christians has in fact reached a new point 
of progress. It has ceased to be merely a pious aspira- 
tion, and has become a world wide movement. Never 
since the divisions in the Church of Christ took place 
has the need of reunion been felt as it is now. And 
this necessity is being forced home upon us from many 
sides. Hard facts are driving us to see the evils, and 
the perils of our present situation. 

The outbreak of the world war burned into our souls 
the weakness of a divided Christianity. We saw that, 
as a power to preserve peace among men, the Church 
did not seriously count. Its voice was not heard speak- 
ing unitedly and clearly for those principles of justice 
and righteousness upon which alone peace can rest. Its 
influence in the hour of the world's crisis was negli- 



2 THE CALL TO UNITY 

gible. And the whole course of events since has served 
to make this inadequacy clearer to us. Whatever ex- 
planation, or defense, or palliation there may be for 
them, it is plain that our divisions are a disaster to the 
cause of Christ. Before the present unprecedented 
need of the world, the Christian Church stands with 
her life enfeebled, her witness weakened, her message 
in large measure discredited by her own differences and 
dissensions. 

Christian Unity is no mere ecclesiastical problem. 
It is the greatest, and the most far reaching of all pres- 
ent day questions. It lies back of, and holds the key to, 
all our other problems, national and international, so- 
cial, political and economic. As men face the tremen- 
dous responsibilities and tasks of this new time, they are 
feeling the need of support and guidance. They know 
that if there is to be a new order it must be filled with a 
new spirit. They are looking for moral and spiritual 
strength and help. But they are not looking, with con- 
fidence, to the Church for this. A disunited Church 
cannot call forth the faith of men, nor give the message 
of Christ to the world. Its own inconsistency, and self- 
contradiction are too evident. How can the world 
learn the Gospel of fellowship from an organization 
which is at variance with itself? What power is there 
in an appeal for a united world issued by a divided 
Church? What force is there in a plea for brother- 
hood by those who fail to give evidence of brotherli- 



THE CALL TO UNITY 3 

ness? Such an appeal suggests at once the retort: 
" Physician, heal thyself." 

The Christian Church is commissioned to show the 
world the true meaning of human brotherhood. It 
is for this that the Church is set here among men. 
It is to preach and to be, the truest realization of fel- 
lowship ever seen on this earth; a fellowship which 
transcends all bounds of nation, or race, or color; a fel- 
lowship blessed, made holy and complete, in oneness 
with Jesus Christ. This fellowship was to be the proof 
of the Church's Divine mission and of the power of 
Him in Whose Name she speaks. While the Church 
fails to furnish this proof, can we wonder if the world 
listens to her message with doubt and uncertainty ? 

The Church should be the inspiration and guiding 
force of the present movements for social advance. 
Changes far greater than any of us realize are taking 
place. We have entered into a new era. Vast prob- 
lems are pressing for solution. The truer order of 
cooperation, fellowship, brotherhood is to be estab- 
lished. In all this the Church should be not a spec- 
tator, nor a mere sympathetic influence, but the great 
guiding power. The one true hope for the world is 
that these movements shall be actuated by the spirit, 
and the principles, of Christ. There should now be a 
world-wide call from the Church for a redeemed social 
order, in which the spirit and law of Christ shall rule, 
for the bringing of Christian principles into the whole 



4 THE CALL TO UNITY 

fabric of modern civilization; for the Christianization 
of every department of life. Who but the Church 
can issue such a call? What other power but that 
of religion is able to bring the spirit of brotherhood 
into human relationships and " to make justice and love 
the controlling motive in all social conditions " ? But 
her own divided state makes it impossible for the 
Church to give such a call with effect. " Doth a foun- 
tain send forth at the same place sweet water and 
bitter ?" Can a Church which is divided by the 
spirit of sect liberate men's hearts from the spirit 
of class and of caste? Can a Church which main- 
tains barriers of religious antagonism and division 
be the herald of cooperation, and of the common life? 
Can a Church in which men are separated into com- 
petitive and rival groups preach effectively the so- 
cial message of the Gospel? In his interesting essay 
on " Christianity and the Working Classes," Mr. 
Arthur Henderson very pointedly asks " Is Christi- 
anity, as we have it represented to-day, split up as it 
is into almost innumerable denominational churches, 
capable of dealing adequately with the growing forces 
of reaction? '" and he adds: " However much Chris- 
tians may console themselves that a Church divided into 
numerous sects is justified and, as many think, a source 
of strength, the multitude is slow to believe in a Chris- 
tianity so divided." 1 

1 Christianity and the Working Classes, pp. 125, 126. 



THE CALL TO UNITY 5 

Of the practical waste, the squandering of energy, 
time and resources, occasioned by our divisions it is 
scarcely necessary to speak. We see the evidences of 
this on every hand. It is obvious that the energies 
which, as Christians, we devote to controversy and 
conflict with each other should be concentrated on the 
one great purpose for which the Church exists. But 
the overlapping, the duplication of effort, the compe- 
tition and rivalry among Christians are worse than 
mere waste of power, serious as this is. They are a 
spectacle which lessens the faith of men, which brings 
religion into disrepute, and which does daily hurt to 
the cause of Christ. Men generally are not hostile 
to religion, but the message of Christ seems to them 
confused and uncertain. Amid the controversies of 
the churches they cannot hear the great central mes- 
sage of the Church. The fact which they see clearly 
is that, however the divisions may be accounted for, 
they conflict with the Church's own teaching, and 
contradict her own fundamental principles. They 
know that whatever else the Church of Christ stands 
for it must, if it truly represents Him, stand for har- 
mony, not for discord, for peace, not for dissension, 
for fellowship, brotherhood and love. A divided 
Church is giving us a non-believing world. 

Here in the United States, in the life of our own 
country, the practical results of the disunity among 
Christians are only too apparent. One of its most 



6 THE CALL TO UNITY 

serious results is the complete divorce of religion from 
our system of public education. This land in which 
we live is a Christian land. It was the distinct in- 
tention of its founders that it should be such. As 
Bishop Gailor reminds us, in his Bedell Lectures, this 
nation " was founded by Christian men with the de- 
liberate purpose of extending the influence of the 
Christian religion," and the Supreme Court of the 
United States has specifically declared that the Chris- 
tian Religion is part of the common law of our coun- 
try. 1 It was George Washington who said " Reason 
and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious prin- 
ciple." ..." To the distinguished character of pa- 
triot it should be our highest glory to add the more 
distinguished character of Christian." And yet we 
cannot teach the children in our public schools even 
the bare rudiments of the Christian religion, The re- 
ligious divisions among us forbid our doing so. 

The whole fabric of democracy is based on belief 
in God. Everything is staked on the right judgment 
and moral principle of the people. Education alone 
does not give moral principle. A trained intellect has 
no necessary connection with right conduct. There 
is no other basis for moral conduct except religion. 
The distinction between right and wrong disappears, 
or becomes a mere convention, if we cease to recog- 

1 The. Christian Church and Education, p. 48. 



THE CALL TO UNITY 7 

nize God and His law. But as to this upon which the 
character of our people, and the life of our country 
depend, our schools are compelled to keep silence. 
Children are influenced more by what we do than 
by what we say. And between our provision for them 
in regard to education and our provision for them in 
regard to religion they see a contrast which cannot 
fail to impress them. They see their education care- 
fully provided for by the State, and religion carefully 
excluded. With their companions, on six days in each 
week, they enter the door of the one schoolhouse; on 
the other day they go in separated groups, if they go at 
all, to differing, and rival, religious teachers. As to 
education they see visible unity ; as to religion they see 
visible dissension and disunity. A member of the 
Board of Education of the city of New York was re- 
ported recently as saying, " We fully understand that 
a system of education from which God and religion are 
excluded provides only for a civilization which must 
crumble to pieces. " And it is the divisions among 
Christians which are compelling us to maintain such a 
system. 

It was no religious partisan, but the late Thomas 
H. Huxley, who wrote, " I have always been strongly 
in favor of secular education, in the sense of edu- 
cation without theology; but I confess I have been 
no less seriously perplexed to know by what practical 
measures the religious feeling, which is the essential 



8 THE CALL TO UNITY 

basis of right conduct, was to be kept up, in the pres- 
ent utterly chaotic state of opinion upon these mat- 
ters, without the use of the Bible." 

We are not willing even to entertain the thought 
that America may cease to be a Christian nation. 
But the facts are such as may well give us grave con- 
cern. Human society does not remain Christian of 
its own inherent impulse, without pains or effort. 
Christian faith and principle do not persist of their 
own momentum. Fruits do not continue without 
roots. The United States Census of 191 6 shows two 
hundred and two different religious denominations. 
But in our population of more than one hundred 
million people less than forty-two million acknowledge 
connection with any kind of religion. Trustworthy 
statistics show that an actually incredible number of 
the young people of our land are growing up without 
definite religious teaching of any sort. A volume, 
just published, by Charles Otis Gill and Gifford 
Pinchot, gives the results of a careful investigation 
of conditions in the rural districts of the State of 
Ohio. This report reveals a decline, both religiously 
and morally, which is startling, and the situation is 
shown to be worst in that portion of the State where 
the American stock predominates and the foreign 
born population is small. 

" In this area/' the authors say, " after more than 
a hundred years of the work of the Churches, the re- 



THE CALL TO UNITY 9 

ligious, social, and economic welfare of the people is 
going down. Although the Churches have been here 
for more than a century, no normal type of organized 
religion is really flourishing, while the only kind 
which, during the past fifteen years, has been gaining 
ground — the cult of the Holy Rollers — is scarcely 
better than that of a dervish. The Churches have 
failed, and are failing, to dispel ignorance and super- 
stition, to prevent the increase of vice, the spread of 
disease, and the general moral and spiritual decadence 
of the people. Imbeciles, feeble-minded, and delin- 
quents are numerous, politics is corrupt, the selling of 
votes is common, petty crimes abound, the schools have 
been badly managed and poorly attended. Cases of 
rape, assault, and robbery are of almost weekly occur- 
rence within five minutes' walk of one of the county 
seats, while in another county political control is held 
by a self-confessed criminal." * 

There is no reason to suppose that conditions in 
Ohio are exceptionally bad. On the contrary, this 
State was selected as the field for investigation be- 
cause it is central and representative, its country dis- 
tricts contain great numbers of churches, the average 
for the State is in fact one church for every two hun- 
dred and eighty persons, its religious life includes all 
the stronger denominations, and has been established 
for a century. In the eighteen counties investigated 

1 Six Thousand Churches, Macmillan and Co. 



IO THE CALL TO UNITY 

there are, in two hundred and eight rural townships, 
fifteen hundred and forty-two churches, divided among 
seventeen different denominations, It is not the fail- 
ure of Protestantism that we see here, nor the failure 
of Catholicism.. It is the failure of both. It is the 
inadequacy and ineffectiveness of a divided Chris- 
tianity. What is the picture of the Christian religion 
which is presented week by week to our people in what 
is called the "religious page" of our daily papers? 
In that exhibit of rival religious agencies, varying in 
their teaching from Roman Catholicism at one end of 
the list to Spiritism, Christian Science and New 
Thought at the other, does the average American see 
a sight to inspire him with faith in the Gospel of 
Christ? Could anything be more confusing to the 
minds, or less assuring to the faith of men, than the 
spectacle there offered to them? And yet this Babel 
of discordant voices is a photographic representation 
of what we venture to call " our common Christi- 
anity." The plain man may be forgiven if he can see 
in it little that is either " common " or Christian. It 
is a picture which casts doubt and discredit on Christ 
and His Gospel. If Christ cannot bring His own fol- 
lowers together in fellowship and brotherhood, how 
can men believe in His power? If Christians are un- 
able to agree among themselves as to the essential 
truth of the Gospel is it surprising if the world is un- 



THE CALL TO UNITY II 

convinced, or if men conclude that all questions of be- 
lief are unimportant? 

Even within the household of the various Commun- 
ions the effect of our present divided state is deeply 
felt. The faith of the whole body of Christians is 
weakened and impaired by it. Great numbers of 
those who were brought up in these different faiths are 
adrift, without clear religious belief, or definite con- 
viction. Many of those whose parents were earnest 
Christians, and whose family names have long been 
on the records of the Church, are to be found in the 
ranks of the apparently indifferent. In the battle 
against the evil that is in the world, against the anti- 
Christian forces at work in the intellectual world, 
against the spirit of pure paganism now manifesting 
itself in our literature, in our art, in the present 
standards, or lack of standards, in much of our social 
life, we need the testimony and the power of a united 
Christianity. Our divisions are giving the forces of 
evil and unbelief a terrible advantage. 

But if our disunity weakens and stultifies the work 
of the Church here in our own land, where we are 
familiar with the disputes, and know something of 
their history, what shall be said of its effect in the 
Mission fields, in the work of world-evangelization? 
The question is one which answers itself. Here the 
inconsistency of our divided state, and the harm 



12 THE CALL TO UNITY 

wrought by it, come out into full view. Why should 
those who know nothing of the Gospel listen to us 
until we can agree among ourselves as to what is its 
essential message? What success would the first mis- 
sionaries, the Apostles themselves, have had if they 
had gone out from Jerusalem disagreeing as to the 
common Faith, refusing to hold communion with each 
other, carrying rival and conflicting messages in the 
Name of the one Christ? From every quarter of the 
globe, the devoted men and women who are giving 
their lives as missionaries send back to us the same testi- 
mony. They tell us that if Christ is to be made known 
to the heathen world the divisions among Christians 
must cease, that they are the greatest of all hin- 
drances, a practically insuperable obstacle, to the 
carrying out of our Lord's command to " make di- 
sciples of all the nations." 

The Bishop of Dornakal, the only native of India 
in the Anglican Episcopate, gives us a vivid picture of 
the situation. Stating that there are one hundred 
million people in India beyond the reach of any ex- 
isting missionary agency, and deploring the waste of 
effort caused by unnecessary multiplication of missions 
in the same district, the Bishop declared a few weeks 
ago that if there could be a union of spiritual forces 
this would soon result in doubling the number of 
Christians in India. In his address as reported, the 
Bishop said: "Another evil of the present state of 



THE CALL TO UNITY 1 3 

things was the confusion created in the minds of non- 
Christian Indians. Again and again he had been asked 
by educated Indians to explain our differences. Again 
and again he had tried to tell them we are all one, but 
always he was conscious that they saw two churches 
within one hundred yards. In the large towns when a 
Hindoo became a Christian there was a real competition 
between the various bodies of Christians to convince 
him that theirs was the one true representation of 
Christianity. Converts had told him that they were 
happy enough after their conversion until their baptism, 
but as this drew near the quarrels amongst Christian 
ministers as each sought to obtain them almost made 
them draw back. . . . There are many Indians who 
would have Christ but will have nothing to do with 
Christianity that has come from the West, because 
of the bitterness and rivalry it has brought with it." 
The thought of unity may well be in our minds. 
The disastrous consequences of our divisions are all too 
clear. The most hopeful feature of the existing sit- 
uation is that earnest Christians everywhere are realiz- 
ing its hopelessness. We see the Christian Church 
disqualified for her task of world-service, unable to 
speak with a corporate voice, without power to meet 
the deep needs, and the magnificent opportunities 
which now confront her. We see the waste of power 
and resources, the over-churching and the under- 
churching, the jealousies and unholy rivalries which 



14 THE CALL TO UNITY 

result from the present state of things. We see the 
faith of men lessened, their minds confused as to the 
message of the Gospel, the Church's own spiritual life 
weakened and impoverished, her vision of the truth 
narrowed and restricted. 

We see all this, and more, as the practical result 
of the dissensions and divisions within the Christian 
family. But unanswerable as the argument for re- 
union is from the practical side this is not the only, 
nor the chief, ground of its appeal to us. For all be- 
lieving Christians there is a call to unity higher, and 
more sacred, than this. 

It is not sufficient for us to base the appeal for 
unity only on the lower grounds of expediency, or of 
economy, or of more effective ministration. We fall 
far short of the truth and of its full claim upon us if 
we rest the case here. Our desire for unity has a 
deeper source, our hope for it a surer foundation than 
our own wisdom and judgment, our sense of loss 
through our divisions, or our feeling that unity would 
be practically advantageous. Unity is not merely 
some plan, or scheme, or vision of ours. The call to 
unity is from Christ Himself, and therefore it comes 
with compelling power to all Christians, Catholic and 
Protestant alike. This is the fact which we all need 
to have more clearly before us. And this fact is now 
being recognized with new clearness by Christians of all 
names. In a most helpful and noteworthy volume en- 



THE CALL TO UNITY 1 5 

titled Pathways to Christian Unity, six distinguished 
and representative ministers of the English Free 
Churches, unite in the following statement : " A more 
careful reading of the Gospels has made it clear that 
our present divisions are contrary to the mind of 
Christ, and that unity is implicit in the very idea of 
the Church. As Christ formed it, the Church was 
one, even as the Gospel is one, and God is one. A 
thorough-going examination of the Acts and the Epis- 
tles has left it beyond doubt that in the Apostolic 
Church, amid considerable diversity of type and polity, 
unity was regarded as an essential note, a unity spir- 
itual first but also visible and effective. " . . . " We 
are not dealing then with a question of convenience 
merely, with a utilitarian arrangement, to save over- 
lapping and wasteful rivalry. We are concerned with 
something deeper; the more adequate expression of 
the spiritual reality; the fulfilment of the divine pur- 
pose. The Apostles and members of the early Church 
rightly apprehended the mind of Christ in this matter. 
The New Testament and all its writers bear a con- 
sistent witness to the unity of the Church. Diligence 
was exercised in keeping the unity of the Spirit in the 
bond of peace, and great pains were taken to prevent 
division." . . . " This exposition of the teaching and 
practice of New Testament times has for us far more 
than an academic interest. The mind of Christ is 
regulative; His will is commanding. If we believe 



1 6 THE CALL TO UNITY 

that our Lord meant us to be all in a visible fellow- 
ship, we dare not rest in our state of disunion. The 
rallying point for united Christendom is common 
loyalty to the leadership of our Lord." 1 Careful and 
open minded study of the New Testament will, as 
these writers say, make clear to any of us that it is 
Christ's will that His Church shall be one. 

It is from Christ Himself that the call comes to us. 

In His last prayer on earth for His disciples, re- 
corded in the seventeenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
the petition " that they all may be one " is four times 
repeated. It is often urged that in this prayer our 
Lord had in mind the inner unity of the Spirit which 
should bind His disciples together, and beyond ques- 
tion this is true. But it is clear also that He had in 
mind a unity of the Spirit which was to be visibly 
manifested. The oneness of His followers is to be 
the evidence to the world of His Divine power and 
mission. He prays not for a unity which is invisible 
but for a unity which men shall see and which shall 
bring them to belief in Him. His prayer to the Fa- 
ther for His disciples is " that they also may be one in 
Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent 
Me." And the acts of Christ are in accord with His 
prayer. He not only prays, He also provides, that 
the spiritual unity of His disciples shall have visible 
expression. He forms a society into which all His 

1 Pp. 22, 25, 26. Macmillan and Co. 



THE CALL TO UNITY 1 7 

followers are to be gathered, and this society He calls 
His Church. This society which our Lord Himself 
forms is both inward and outward, both spiritual and 
visible. It is a Kingdom of the Spirit, a Kingdom 
" within you," but it has also tangible existence and 
embodiment. Our Lord chooses and trains its first 
officers, appoints its visible observances, the sacraments 
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are to be 
continued forever, and promises to be with it " always, 
even unto the end of the world/ ' This was the 
Church of the New Testament as all the first disciples 
knew it, and were gathered into it. The New Testa- 
ment knows nothing of " churches/' except as local 
parts of the one Church founded by Christ Himself. 
Saint Paul leaves us in no doubt as to what this fact 
of the one Church, the one Spirit manifested in one 
Body, the visible fellowship of all believers in Christ 
means to him. 

We think of St. Paul, rightly, as the great Apostle 
of Christian liberty, but he is equally, and even more 
distinctively, the Apostle of Christian unity. To St. 
Paul this fact of the Church is of the very essence of 
the Gospel. In the Church he sees, as indeed do all 
the New Testament writers, the actual carrying into 
effect, the practical realization of that which Christ 
came into this world to do. 

The Church is the means which God has appointed 
for bringing to Himself all mankind, in the fellowship 



1 8 THE CALL TO UNITY 

of His dear Son. It is the Church which gives the 
Gospel actuality and meaning. As St. Paul sees and 
understands them Christ and His Church cannot be 
separated. On the way to Damascus, the persecutor 
of the Church, he has heard the voice saying " Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" To St. Paul the 
Church is not something apart from, or additional to 
the Gospel, a voluntary association of those who be- 
lieve formed for convenience or effectiveness in work. 
The Church is an integral part of the Gospel, insep- 
arable from it, and necessary to its life. Without it 
the Gospel would itself be incomplete and unintelligi- 
ble. The Church is Jesus Christ Himself still alive, 
still present, still manifested in the fellowship of those 
who believe in Him and are joined to Him by the 
Spirit. As St. Paul contemplates this truth, and lives 
it, the wonder of it increases, the depth of its meaning 
grows upon him. He can find no language sufficient, 
no terms strong enough, to give it expression. His 
words burn and glow as we read them. He adds 
phrase to phrase, and figure to figure, in the effort to 
make clear its revelation of God's goodness and love. 
His great desire is to make all men see " what is the 
exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, 
according to the working of His mighty power, which 
He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the 
dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly 
places, far above all principality, and power, and 



THE CALL TO UNITY 19 

might, and dominion, and every name that is named, 
not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come; and hath put all things under His feet, 
and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the 
Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that 
filleth all in all." x 

The Church, St. Paul tells us, is the body of the 
living Christ. Christ and His Church are not two, 
they are one. The Church can only be one, because 
it is the body of the one Christ. It is the living fel- 
lowship of all who share Christ's life, all who by the 
Spirit are made one with Him. It is the unity of all 
who are His, both in this world and in Paradise. 
There can no more be two Churches than there can be 
two Christs. Christians may fail to recognize, or may 
deny, their fellowship in Christ, but it still exists, and 
in this lies the deep wrong of division. This is the 
basic, fundamental truth which St. Paul sees and de- 
clares with such power. The Gospel means not only 
that which took place at Bethlehem, and that which 
was done on Calvary, it means the embodiment and 
manifestation of the risen and ascended Christ in the 
visible fellowship of His followers, in whom, by the 
power of the Holy Ghost He continues His life and 
work in this world. The very proof of the Gospel is 
its power to bind men and women of every sort to- 
gether in a new life of fellowship with Christ and with 

^■Ephesians i, 19-23. 



20 THE CALL TO UNITY 

each other. The Apostle will hear of nothing which 
obscures this, or weakens it, or conflicts with it. In 
the striking words of a well known New Testament 
scholar " the great struggle of his life was not to claim 
permission for Gentiles to form Gentile churches side 
by side with the Jewish Churches but to preserve the 
completest inter-communion between Jewish and Gen- 
tile believers in Christ. It was the refusal of Jews 
to eat with Gentiles — a refusal which must have ne- 
cessitated separate eucharists — which he denounced 
as fundamentally unchristian, when even St. Peter 
and St. Barnabas for a moment lent it their sanction." 
" St. Paul's whole career was shaped by his convic- 
tion and determination that comprehension and unity 
were and should be essential notes of the Christian 
Church. Not far an instant could he allow the posi- 
tion that the city of Antioch might contain two bodies 
of baptized persons, agreeing in their Christian faith, 
recipients of the same Holy Ghost, and yet separated 
from communion with one another in the breaking of 
bread. Two bodies and one spirit was a thought un- 
thinkable to him. ' There is neither Jew nor Greek,' 
he cries to the Galatians, to whom he has repeated 
the story of that crisis, ' there is neither Jew nor 
Greek, there is neither bondman nor freeman, there 
is no male and female ; for ye are all one — one man 
— in Christ Jesus.' " * 

1 The Vision of Unity, by J. Armitage Robinson, pp. 17, 18. 



THE CALL TO UNITY 21 

No one has ever urged the call to unity and its 
claim upon all Christians with such power, and pas- 
sion, as St. Paul does. If the great Apostle were now 
here with us in the flesh there is no question as to 
what his counsel would be to us. 

In the confusion and weakness of our disunity his 
words come to us to-day as a ringing challenge. " I 
hear that there be divisions among you." " Is Christ 
divided? " " Mark them which cause divisions/' " I 
beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there 
be no divisions among you." " For as the body is 
one and hath many members, but all the members of 
the body, many though they be, are one body, so also 
is the Christ : for by one Spirit have we all been bap- 
tized into one body." 

The facts as to our present condition, and the plain 
New Testament teaching as to the Church would 
seem to leave us without apology or defense for the 
continuance of our divisions. We must win back 
all of us the vision of the Church of Christ as St. 
Paul sees it and shows it to us, the Church Divinely 
founded to be the pillar and ground of the truth, the 
dispenser of heavenly grace, the Body and the Bride 
of Christ. It is this New Testament, Divinely given 
ideal of the Church which is needed to draw us all 
together, and fill us with longing for the full realiza- 
tion, and manifestation, of our fellowship in the one 



22 THE CALL TO UNITY 

Lord. It is not enough for us to go on faithfully 
and passively in our separated Communions. As 
Christians we have no right to acquiesce in conditions 
as they are. It is time for all of us to realize that, 
while we owe a proper loyalty to our own Com- 
munions, our supreme loyalty is due to the one 
Church, the Body of Christ, into which we are bap- 
tized, and of which we are all members. Our sep- 
arations and divisions have led many of us to a poor 
and inadequate view of the Church. They have led 
some of us even to suspicion and depreciation of it, as 
though loyalty to the Church might in some way come 
between us and Christ. There is a demand in some 
quarters for a Christianity without the Church. 
Nothing could be more out of harmony with the teach- 
ing of St. Paul, and of the whole New Testament. 
The one Church has been too much hidden from us 
by " the churches." The Free Church writers of the 
book Pathways to Christian Unity, already quoted, 
say, " It is small wonder that the vision of the One, 
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is obscured. 
Amid our preoccupations with sectional interests, and 
our emphasis on denominational differences, we can- 
not be surprised that among a great body of church- 
men the idea of the Church no longer kindles imagina- 
tion, nor evokes warm affection.' ' . . . " The removal 
of our denominational walls would increase the ranges 



THE CALL TO UNITY 23 

of our vision, and bring into clearer focus the one 
Church of Christ in all its majesty and glory." 

There may be those who can regard the present di- 
vided state of the Church with indifference. There 
may even be those who prefer that things should re- 
main as they are, who fear the power that a United 
Church might exercise in the world. And for that 
fear there may be good ground. A Church united 
in the Spirit of Christ would exercise a power such as 
that which the Gospel showed in the first days. It is 
quite true that a " half pagan civilization has less to 
fear from a divided and distracted church." x 

But to all who believe in Christ as the Redeemer 
and Lord of human life, the one and only Saviour of 
the world, the present situation is an intolerable one. 

It is Christ's will that is thwarted, it is Christ's 
power that is circumscribed, it is Christ's promises 
that are discredited, by the present condition of His 
Church. Our divisions are not only waste, and loss, 
and weakness; they are sin. 

Men do not listen to the Gospel because we are 
withholding from them the chief evidence of its 
power. They do not see the evidence which our 
Lord Himself said would convince them, and on which 
St. Paul so insistently dwells, the one body of be- 

1 See essay on " Reunion and the War " in Towards Reunion, 
P. 341. 



24 THE CALL TO UNITY 

lievers, linked together in visible and holy fellowship 
by the power of the one Spirit. Evangelization, Wit- 
ness, Redemption from sin, Fellowship with God in 
Christ, these are the things for which the Church 
exists in this world, and these are all being hindered 
and defeated by the Church's divisions. Our disunity 
is sin, and it is sin in which we are all of us involved. 
We are all guilty of the sin of schism. " We are all 
more or less schismatic. If not wilfully, then by mis- 
fortune, or by the fault of others, we are divided from 
one another in the Body of Christ. " x The time has 
come for repentance in which we must all share. This 
is a day for great searchings of heart, but it is our 
own hearts that we must search and not our neigh- 
bors'. We need not inquire too diligently into the 
causes of the divisions, nor seek to apportion the 
blame for them. The question before us is not how 
did the divisions begin, but how may they be brought 
to an end. In most quarrels there are faults on both 
sides, and so it has been with the quarrels among 
Christians. The question now is not as to the origin 
of schism, but as to the longer continuance of it. 
What is out attitude, and the attitude of our respective 
Communions towards this question? 

Is our personal pride, or our corporate self-satis- 
faction, hindering the coming of unity, and postpon- 
ing the day when the power of Christ can be revealed? 

1 Unity and Schism, by T. A, Lacey, p. 150, 



THE CALL TO UNITY 2$ 

How much is our attitude governed by prejudice, by 
dislike of change, by unwillingness to look on the 
things of others, by the temper of schism in our own 
souls? How truly do we long for the unity of 
Christ's Church, and how ready are we to make sacri- 
fices of our preferences and prejudices for it? These 
are serious questions for all of us to answer, and 
they are questions from which none of us can escape. 
The day has passed in which self-sufficient aloof- 
ness, or exclusiveness, or indifference could be ex- 
cused. No such attitude on the part of any of us is 
now justifiable. Each Christian Communion is called 
upon to acknowledge its share in the sin of making 
schism, or of helping to perpetuate it. There is no 
Church on earth, Catholic or Protestant, which is not 
a sharer in this sin. There is not a Church which has 
done all that it should have done to prevent it, or to 
bring it to an end. It is the profound, and devout, 
Roman Catholic, Moehler, who declares that Catholics 
and Protestants " must stretch a friendly hand to one 
another and exclaim, in the consciousness of a com- 
mon guilt, we all have erred — it is the Church only 
which cannot err; we all have sinned — the Church 
only is spotless on earth "; and he adds, " This open 
confession of guilt on both sides will be followed by 
the festival of reconciliation/ ' 1 We are called to re- 
pent, and repentance, if it be real, includes full pur- 

1 La Symbolique, tome ii, pp. 33, 34- 



26 THE CALL TO UNITY 

pose of amendment, and active effort to repair the 
wrong. It is time now for a great resolve, by Chris- 
tians of all names, that the present situation shall not 
continue, that through the promised help of God the 
Spirit, present with us now as in the first days, the 
way shall be found for the healing of our divisions, 
and for the manifestation to the world of our fellow- 
ship in Jesus Christ. 



II 

THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 

There are few, to-day, who will defend the di- 
visions among Christians. Not often do we hear the 
argument, once common enough, that competition is 
needful for religion, and that sectarianism is ordained 
of God. It is now generally recognized that the di- 
visions among us are a sin in themselves and a source 
of untold injury to the cause of Christ. But there 
are still many who doubt whether the ideal of unity 
can be realized. The obstacles in the way of its real- 
ization are indeed great. From the human point of 
view we may admit that they seem insuperable. But 
this is not a question to be considered merely from 
the human point of view. It is Jesus Christ Who 
calls us to unity, and with Him the impossible is pos- 
sible. The difficulty of bringing men and women into 
fellowship with each other in Christ is no greater now 
than it was when the Gospel was first preached. That 
which God the Spirit was able to accomplish in hu- 
man lives in the first age He is equally able to accom- 
plish in this later one. The reunion of the Church in 
this twentieth century would be not one whit more 

*7 



28 THE CALL TO UNITY 

wonderful, or surprising, than was the appearance of 
the Church in the first century. The difficulties to- 
day are, in fact, far less than those which St. Paul 
faced when he proclaimed the Gospel of visible fel- 
lowship in the one Christ. " What a strange medley 
it was, that Corinthian Church of his ! Jew and Gen- 
tile, master and slave, cultured and unwashed, were 
welded into the closest unity by their baptism into this 
new society. History could produce nothing like it. 
Slaves had suddenly found themselves on a spiritual 
level with their owners; emancipated women had be- 
gun to prophesy in the common assembly, to the scan- 
dal of old-fashioned disciplinarians; there was a babel 
of tongues as each individual claimed priority for the 
exercise of his spiritual gift. How could such a con- 
glomerate hold together ? Only, St. Paul said, as they 
recognized an organic life which duly related part with 
part, only as they were dominated by the truth of the 
one Body. . . . The body is Christ. That is the true 
unity. It unites all classes, and all nationalities. It 
finds a place for everyone, and keeps everyone in his 
place. It destroys not individuals, but individualism. 
It transmutes self-assertion into self-devotion. It 
counts charity, that is the spirit of membership, above 
all other spiritual gifts. It creates an efficiency and 
generates a force which transcends all efforts of all 
individuals, and which in the end will be irresistible. 
It presents a living Christ to the world — a living and 



TlHE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 29 

growing Christ, embodied in the lives of His mem- 
bers, gathering up in one all the individuals of hu- 
manity into the ultimate unity of God's One Man. 
And so it offers a new philosophy of human life, and 
with it a new human hope, as certain of fulfilment as 
is the purpose of God/' 1 As we consider the prac- 
tical possibility of unity, and the steps necessary for 
its achievement, we must keep in mind the fact that 
unity is far from meaning uniformity. A mechanical 
uniformity would be as untrue to the New Testament 
ideal of the Church as is an individualistic disunity. 
The one would be as far from the true unity of the 
Spirit as the other is. The one would be as spiritually 
sterile as the other is spiritually disintegrating. The 
method of a unity maintained by authority from with- 
out has already been tried on a great scale, and our 
present disunity is the reaction from it. Uniformity 
in the details of faith and worship there neither can 
be, nor should be, in the Church. God has created 
men with widely differing temperaments, gifts, and 
spiritual capacities. Our gifts and capacities are not 
to be repressed, they are all to be developed and ful- 
filled in fellowship with Christ. A true unity must 
provide for great diversity of spiritual apprehension, 
experience and expression. Unity requires uniform- 
ity only in the things which are essential to common 

1 J. Armitage Robinson, D.D. The Vision of Unity, pp. 9, 10. 
Longmans, Green and Company. 



30 THE CALL TO UNITY 

faith and life in Christ. Unity means a oneness in 
the essential things so real that we shall dare to differ 
freely in lesser matters, as men and women do who 
live in real fellowship, without their differences caus- 
ing, or even suggesting, separation and division. We 
do not need separated and rival sects to give room for 
proper freedom. If complete agreement in matters of 
faith were a prerequisite for unity we might indeed 
despair, but unity imposes no such condition. While 
it is obvious that those who are to live and work to- 
gether in Christ must have a common faith in Him, 
it is certain that unity cannot be based only on agree- 
ment upon questions of doctrine. We need to recog- 
nize more clearly that it is not so much agreement 
which produces unity as it is unity and fellowship which 
produce agreement. It is the Spirit which maketh men 
to be of one mind in an house. Our Lord Himself 
acted upon this principle. He based the unity of His 
followers on a foundation far deeper than mere intel- 
lectual agreement. He did not formulate a creed. He 
founded a Household, a Church, in which all were to 
become sharers of His life. It was the living of their 
common life in Him which was to keep them in the 
unity of the common faith. It was in the fellowship 
of the one household that they were to grow together 
in knowledge of the truth. Right apprehension of 
truth is important, and necessary. But unity lies 
more fundamentally in our sharing the life that is in 



T/HE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 3 1 

Christ than in our apprehension, or explanation, of it. 
And this fundamental unity of life given, and shared, 
is already ours. What is needed is that this shall be 
realized and made manifest. 

While it is true that the difficulties to be overcome 
are beyond estimate, the present outlook for unity is 
full of encouragement. Within the past few decades 
an astonishing change has taken place. A short time 
ago few Christians were seriously concerned about 
unity. Now the desire for it is manifested in all parts 
of the Church, and in every quarter of the world. A 
new spirit of fellowship is showing itself. Prejudices 
are breaking down. Misconceptions are being re- 
moved. Mutual respect is taking the place of suspicion 
and misunderstanding. Scholarship is at work and 
under its impartial searchlight some of the old difficul- 
ties wear a changed aspect. There is a new freedom, 
a new interchange of thought, a new readiness to com- 
pare ideas, and to consider opposing views, among 
scholars and leaders, in all Communions. Roman 
Catholics and Protestants, Anglicans and Noncon- 
formists are found sympathetically and open-mindedly 
studying each other's religious life and teaching. The 
old, bitter style of controversy has almost disappeared. 
Of this changed situation, as it appears in England, 
Canon Goudge says, " If any member of our own 
body preached about Nonconformists in the style of 
Dr. South, or wrote about them in the style of the 



32 THE CALL TO UNITY 

poet Crabbe, we should soon make him understand 
how deeply we were shocked by his words. It is rare 
indeed to hear from one of our own pulpits an unkind 
word about those separated from us, and we may 
hope that the same is widely true of Nonconformist 
pulpits. Moreover, the old aloofness is giving way. 
We ourselves no longer affect to regard Nonconform- 
ity as negligible, either at home or abroad; the work 
done by Nonconformists for our common Master is 
far too great and too successful for that. There is 
much personal friendliness especially among the min- 
isters of the different Communions, much mutual ap- 
preciation, a far greater humility and desire to learn 
one from another." * 

Christians to-day are realizing that the things which 
unite them are greater than the things which separate 
them. They are asking why the separations should 
continue. This spirit is especially strong among the 
younger people who will soon be the leaders in the 
various Communions. From the Student Christian 
Movement of England comes this declaration : " We 
feel that the divisions of the church in our country 
are no longer tolerable, because they obscure that 
unity in Christ which we know to be more real than 
our differences. We ask for instant and courageous 
action. We want to serve a church which stands as 
one in fearless love of truth." And this utterance is 

1 The Catholic Party and the Nonconformists, p. 4. 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 33 

not exceptional. It is typical of the new spirit and 
attitude. This spirit was already at work before the 
war. But the experiences of the war have greatly 
accentuated and strengthened it. The war brought 
about on an unprecedented scale, contact between 
Chaplains of all kinds and men of all faiths. The 
comradeship in a great cause, the fellowship in a world 
emergency, revealed them to each other as brothers in 
spirit, whatever their religious names. They saw that 
true Christian character, was the product not of any 
one of the different Religious Communions, but of all 
of them. And if they were disposed to regard this as 
the acid test, there is the highest of all authority for 
such a judgment. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." An Army Chaplain of the Church of Eng- 
land writes, " Remove a man from the aura of fem- 
ininity which surrounded his ministry; compel him to 
think in a secular medium; pitch him into a world 
where rations have an inordinate value ; compel him to 
become independent of externals in the spiritual life; 
surround him with pals who want no phrases but the 
naked truth ; give him God the Spirit for his Teacher, 
and the Gospel for his tool; and it is not surprising 
if in these surroundings his style changes, his needs 
simplify, he develops new affinities, and jettisons a 
certain amount of lumber out of his theological valise." 
..." It is one thing to accept the presence of the 
Roman Chapel in your parish as part of your normal 



34 THE CALL TO UNITY 

experience ; and another to see the soldiers of an Irish 
regiment laboriously erecting two wooden altars in the 
camp, at a safe distance from one another, lest the 
Church of Rome should suffer contagion from the 
Church of England. It is one thing to acquiesce in 
the lack of sacramental fellowship with the Noncon- 
formist minister over the way, between whom and 
you there is a series of border raids and minor sheep- 
stealing operations ; and another thing when you know 
him as a friend — when you have shared your experi- 
ence of Christ with him, and worked by his side in 
the presence of wounds and death." * 

Some of the approaches to unity at " the Front " 
may have been such as trained theologians could not 
approve. But we may remember that the forward 
rushes of the " inexperienced " American troops, 
though disapproved, no doubt rightly, by the military 
experts, helped greatly to shorten the war. 

Out of all this fellowship in a common crisis has 
come an increased sense, if not of the sinfulness, at 
any rate of the needlessness and futility of the divi- 
sions among Christians. The soldier at least sees the 
folly of trying to fight the Devil with divided forces. 
Those who have passed through these experiences will 
be less than ever content with a divided Christianity. 
Great as was the crime of its originators, the war 

1 The Rev. T. Guy Rogers, Essay on " Reunion and the War " 
in Towards Reunion, Macmillan and Co. 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 35 

has made powerfully for the unity of the world. It 
has also worked mightily towards the unity of the 
Church. 

Looking at the Christian world as a whole, we see 
most important developments in process, and con- 
spicious among them is the changed situation of the 
ancient Churches of the East. These great Churches, 
which in our western provincialism we have too little 
considered, are now coming into a new relation of 
fellowship with the world, and with the Church at 
large. For centuries content to live apart, with little 
desire for contact with the rest of Christendom, they 
are now stirred with a new spirit and are manifesting 
a strong desire for unity. Speaking to us from the 
home and cradle of our religion, out of a Christian 
life which antedates that of any of the Churches of 
the West, these Eastern Christians have a great part 
to play in the life of the United Church, and in the 
work of bringing together its sundered portions. 
Their unquestioned antiquity, their steadfastness in 
the Faith, which none dispute, their experiences of suf- 
fering and martyrdom, their deep insight into spiritual 
truth, all give unique value to the testimony which they 
bring to us. They have a special witness to bear as 
to the essentials of an evangelical, historic, catholic, 
Christianity. Even out of the present chaos in Rus- 
sia the message comes that the Church of that land is 
finding new life in the day of her visitation. Bishop 



36 THE CALL TO UNITY 

Bury, who has just been among us, and whose work 
as Bishop of the Anglican Churches in Central and 
Northern Europe has given him unusual opportuni- 
ties for knowledge of the situation, predicts that the 
Russian Church will come out of her fierce ordeal 
purified, spiritually strengthened, and with new names 
added to the roll of her martyrs and confessors. One 
of the most trusted religious leaders of our own land, 
and of Protestant Christianity the world over, a lay- 
man, whose position of leadership has kept him in 
close relation with Russian affairs, makes the state- 
ment that " the Russian Orthodox Church is the one 
institution in Russia out of which the cement has not 
fallen." " It should," he says, " be the work of Prot- 
estants not to plant their own communions there, but 
in any way possible to aid the Russian Church to do 
its work. It will be the great power in the recovery 
and restoration of the Russian people." The emer- 
gence of the Eastern portion of Christendom into the 
affairs of the Christian world is already showing its 
effects in practical ways. It is compelling people to 
see the problem of unity in its true perspective. It is 
obliging all to recognize that Christians cannot be 
classified simply as Roman Catholics on the one hand 
or Protestants on the other. It is making plain to 
the wayfaring man the fact that the title Catholic 
cannot, with fidelity to history, or to fact, be claimed 
as the exclusive property of those in communion with 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY tf 

the see of Rome. In this great Communion of the 
East, with its hundred and fifty millions of Christians, 
we see a Christianity which has lived largely apart from 
our controversies, which is deeply Evangelical, but not 
Protestant, which is undeniably Catholic, but in no 
sense Roman, which is as clear and emphatic in its 
rejection of the claims of the Papacy as it is in its 
witness to the Catholic Faith. The relations between 
the Eastern and Anglican Churches have long been 
most friendly in character. There is indeed nothing 
which need hold them apart. Their relations have 
been still further strengthened by recent events, and 
the time seems now to have come for full inter-com- 
munion and fellowship between these Communions. 

The deputation representing the World Conference 
Commission of the Episcopal Church which visited the 
Churches of the East in 19 19 declares, in its report, 
that these Churches now seem ready for definite steps 
towards unity. This report says, " A desire for con- 
tact with Western Christianity is beginning to find 
frequent expression throughout the East. Their theo- 
logical students are being encouraged to go to England 
and America for part of their education. An inter- 
change of lectureships on Church history and doctrine 
is being seriously considered in many places. Many 
progressive reforms are being inaugurated wherein 
contact with the more active form of western Church 
life will exercise a stimulating influence. A fresh 



38 THE CALL TO UNITY 

missionary determination is overtaking the Eastern 
Churches as they look forward to such an era of polit- 
ical peace and religious freedom as they have not en- 
joyed for centuries. It is along such lines as these 
that the pragmatic West can help the more conserva- 
tive East. In many particulars it can be truly said 
that the West lacks what the East has, and the East 
lacks what the West has. Only in union can the ful- 
ness of truth and beauty be found.'' 

At present the chief barrier to progress in the direc- 
tion of world wide unity is the position taken by the 
Roman Catholic Church. The official position of 
this Communion in regard to unity seems still to be 
that which, years ago, in connection with a famous 
discussion, a representative organ declared it to 
be " The Church apostolic, undivided, and universal 
stands alone among all other religious communities, 
with everything to bestow, nothing to receive ; her call 
whether to individuals or communities, is a summons 
not to treat, but to surrender. She sits as judge in 
her own controversy, the only plea she admits is a 
confiteor, the only prayer she listens to a miserere/' 

We may have confidence, however, that this will 
not always be the attitude of the Roman Catholic 
Church. A far different spirit is found in the utter- 
ances of many of her wise pontiffs, in the lives of her 
great saints, and in the negotiations in which she has at 
times engaged with those not of her own fold. Her 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 39 

system is in fact far more flexible than it appears to 
be, and she has shown remarkable power of adapta- 
tion to changed conditions. The growth of a world 
wide spirit of fellowship, and Christian democracy, 
will affect Rome as it is affecting all of us. Some new 
Hildebrand will come to the Papacy who will see the 
vision of unity as St. Paul did, and will find the true 
spiritual power of his high office by voluntarily laying 
aside whatever hinders the Roman Communion from 
Catholic fellowship with the Church of Christ as a 
whole. As to the possibility of approach between the 
Roman Catholic Church and those Communions which 
seem furthest removed from her, no less interesting a 
witness than Professor Harnack says, " If one objects 
to it that at this time no one can imagine how and 
under what forms Catholicism and Protestantism can 
ever draw near one another, it is to be remembered 
that three hundred years ago no one could have con- 
ceived beforehand how Lutheranism and Calvinism 
could have been fused together. And yet we have to- 
day, the Evangelical Union, and thousands know 
themselves as Evangelical Christians without any sus- 
picion of that opposition which once bade Lutherans 
and Calvinists contend more bitterly than Lutherans 
and Catholics. " 1 It should go without saying, in this 
day, that no countenance should be given to the old 

1 See quotation in Passing Protestantism by Newman Smyth, 
p. 193. 



40 THE CALL TO UNITY 

bitterness against Rome, and that no right-minded 
Christian can desire anything but what is best for this 
great Communion, and for her work among men. 
We must all recognize the spiritual excellences of 
the Roman Catholic Church; her fearless witness to 
the supernatural and sacramental truth of the Chris- 
tian religion; her power to produce saints and spir- 
itual heroes; her appeal to the poetic, and the aesthetic, 
in the human soul ; the devotion with which she reaches 
and ministers to all classes of men, the unlettered as 
well as the learned. We see, and we rejoice to see, 
the zeal and loyalty which she arouses in her people; 
their living faith and readiness to make sacrifices for 
their religion; their recognition of the binding duty 
of worship; the sacredness in which they hold the 
marriage bond. All this, and more, we see and we 
thank God for it. These spiritual fruits are a 
strength to the whole Church of Christ, and, in spite 
of our divisions, they are the common possession of 
all of us, for " whether one member suffer, all the 
members suffer with it, or one member be honored, 
all the members rejoice with it." * 

But we shall not make progress towards unity by 
ignoring, or glossing over, real difficulties. As Chris- 
tians, we owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to 
Christ Our Lord, to bear clear witness to the truth as 
we have learned it in Him, and unity reached by any 

1 1 Corinthians xii, 26. 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 4 1 

other method than this could result only in disappoint- 
ment. 

There are elements in the Roman Catholic system 
to which the rest of Christendom can never assent. 
The present claims of the Papacy cannot be reconciled 
either with the history, or with the spirit, of the Chris- 
tian Religion. Unity will not come by way of sub- 
mission, or absorption of others into any one of the 
existing Communions. It will come by concord, not 
by conquest; by mutual and equal fellowship, not by 
" unconditional surrender." Properly constituted au- 
thority there must of course be in the Church, but the 
day of autocracy has gone, whether in temporal or 
spiritual affairs, and its spirit is foreign to Christ's 
Religion. It is, in fact, Christianity itself which by 
its Gospel of liberty and human brotherhood has de- 
stroyed this principle of government. The Papacy, 
and also the monarchical idea of the Episcopate in so 
far as this has obtained in the Anglican Communion, 
or elsewhere, must be modified and brought into full 
accord with that spirit of freedom and brotherhood 
which is alone reconcilable with the Gospel, and which 
the Gospel has itself produced. 

Not only will the way to unity be opened, but all 
the excellences which the Roman Catholic Church 
possesses will be strengthened, her spiritual power will 
be incalculably increased, when she relieves herself 
of her present encumbrances. We must believe that, 



42 THE CALL TO UNITY 

in time, this change will take place. Already the de- 
mand is heard within the Roman Church for " a consti- 
tutionalized Papacy/' For the present it is repressed, 
but it will be heard again, and in time it will pre- 
vail. The laity of this Communion will exercise larger 
power, and the influence within it of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church of the United States seems certain to in- 
crease. No one can say what form the constitution 
of the United Church will take. Who shall say that 
there may not prove to be in it a place for " a con- 
stitutionalized Papacy " ? This is by no means be- 
yond the limits of possibility, and it is a thought which 
is already finding expression. With a largeness of 
view which all of us may well emulate the Free Church 
authors of Pathways to Christian Unity say " some- 
how the Church has to solve the question which is 
also plaguing the political world : how to combine cen- 
tral authority with local freedom and representation 
with true leadership. That leads us to make the dar- 
ing suggestion that the whole Church needs to embrace 
in one comprehensive system the different types of 
Church Government which have been historically de- 
veloped : Papacy, Episcopacy, Presbyterianism and 
Congregationalism. This might be found to be other 
than a wild dream if it was recognized that here was 
really a place for honorable compromise, which could 
be secured by the delimitation of authority, by agree- 
ment as to what things ought to be bound and what 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 43 

ought to be left free, and especially by discovering the 
real nature of Christian authority to consist in the 
persuasion of love, and to rest upon the enthusiasm 
of loyalty, instead of borrowing the notions of 
coercion and the oath of absolute obedience upon 
which the secular State and military discipline rely. 
Indeed this may prove to be something much better 
than compromise — a real experiment in combining 
principles hitherto supposed to be contradictory. 
Episcopacy, for instance, which the Free Churches 
are sometimes asked to swallow as a comparatively 
harmless concession to Catholic prejudice, or a pru- 
dent insurance against possible, but unproved, defects 
in their ministry, might come to be accepted with 
genuine enthusiasm if it were rightly presented as 
signifying the mystical Communion with the Church 
of the past, which is the Church now triumphant in 
heaven ; as conveying recognition by the whole Church 
now militant on earth; as a valuable means of main- 
taining personal fellowship between the local and the 
central officers of the Church. This, however, would 
require an Episcopate not only in the historic succes- 
sion and in unbroken Communion, but also democrat- 
ically elected and truly representative/' x 

Among the Protestant Communions in all parts of 
the world the desire for unity is expressing itself with 
increasing force. The differences between the Prot- 

!Pp. 193, 194. 



44 THE CALL TO UNITY 

estant Churches have, in fact, in large measure ceased 
to exist. The burning questions upon which the sep- 
arations took place have many of them burned them- 
selves out. The differences which remain are most of 
them as to matters acknowledged not to be vital to the 
Christian Faith. The divisions have outlived their 
causes, and it is felt widely that there is not sufficient 
reason for their continuance. The impulse towards 
closer fellowship among the Protestant Communions 
has been much strengthened by great interdenomina- 
tional agencies and movements such as the Y. M. 
C. A., the Y. W. C. A., and the Student Christian 
Movement. 

In this country the " Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America," which includes rep- 
resentatives of thirty different denominations, is doing 
much to draw these Communions nearer to each other, 
to unite them in combined action and expression so far 
as this is possible, and to promote among them the 
spirit of Christian fellowship. While " Federation " 
does not in itself accomplish unity, and cannot be ac- 
cepted as a substitute for it, the contact and coopera- 
tion which it brings about tend strongly in this direc- 
tion. 

The movement towards unity in the Protestant 
world is, however, going far beyond desires or ten- 
dencies. In a number of cases definite steps have been 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 45 

taken, bodies closely akin to each other have become 
united, and others are preparing for like action. 

The three most important Lutheran Churches in the 
United States, heretofore sharply divided, have come 
together as the United Lutheran Church of America. 

Hopeful negotiations are in progress between the 
Church of Scotland and the United Free Church in 
that country. The Congregational, Methodist, and 
Presbyterian Churches in Canada are considering the 
possibility of uniting and the same Churches in Aus- 
tralia are making similar efforts. In England a 
movement is under way to bring together the Free 
Churches under the title of " The United Free Church 
of England/' 

In May, 191 8, most important action was taken by 
the General Assembly of the " Presbyterian Church 
in the United States of America/ ' An invitation was 
extended to the Evangelical Communions of this coun- 
try to participate in a meeting " for the purpose of 
formulating a plan of organic union," and, in Decem- 
ber of that year, a preliminary " Interchurch Confer- 
ence on Organic Union " was held. At this meeting 
an Ad Interim Committee was appointed with instruc- 
tions to invite the Evangelical Communions of the 
United States to send representatives to an " Inter- 
denominational Council on Organic Union/' In 
February, 1920, a meeting of the proposed Council 



46 THE CALL TO UNITY 

assembled, with representatives of eighteen Com- 
munions attending. A plan of organic union was 
adopted which is to be submitted to the governing 
bodies of the several Communions, and when six of 
them have signified their assent the Council will con- 
vene and the plan will go into effect. The plan 
adopted provides that each Communion shall have 
" autonomy in purely denominational affairs " re- 
serving the right to retain its credal statements, its 
form of government in the conduct of its own work, 
and its particular mode of worship, but the Com- 
munions unite in a common declaration of faith, and 
the Council is to " harmonize and unify the work of 
the United Churches " and to bring about, so far as 
may be possible, consolidation of their religious work 
both at home and abroad. This is the most important 
and promising action yet taken toward uniting the 
Protestant Communions. The plan contains the sig- 
nificant statement that " in taking this step, we look 
forward with confident hope to that complete unity 
toward which we believe the Spirit of God is lead- 
ing us." In connection with this movement full 
consolidation has been effected between the Welsh 
Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church 
in the United States of America and plans are now 
in hand which there is good reason to hope will 
bring into union shortly the United Presbyteries, the 
Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church South and 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 47 

the Presbyterian Church North. The fear is some- 
times expressed that such unions of kindred Churches 
may tend to strengthen them in their present position 
and so prove a hindrance instead of an advance to- 
wards the full realization of unity. There seems, 
however, to be little ground for this fear. The fact 
seems to be that fellowship begets the desire for still 
further fellowship, and that every local movement, 
every effort to bring together related groups of 
Churches, gives added momentum to the movement for 
unity and hastens the day when our Lord's prayer 
shall find its full answer. More and more as these 
consolidations take place the spirit of unity will grow, 
the conviction will increase that unity is possible, it 
will be felt that we cannot stop short on the road, 
that the way must be found to bring together all who 
are in Christ in the visible fellowship of his Church. 
In China the " Nanking Church Council " has been 
formed including in its membership six Communions, 
with a central executive committee, in order to avoid 
overlapping and rivalry. From India the report 
comes that important proposals have been formulated 
for corporate reunion between the Anglican Church 
in India, the Mar Thoma Syrian Christians, and the 
South India United Church, which includes Presby- 
terians and Congregationalists of both English and 
American missions. This proposal is of the deepest 
interest, undertaking as it does to bring into fellow- 



48 THE CALL TO UNITY 

ship representatives of the Anglican Church, the Free 
Protestant Churches and the Eastern Church. It is 
the unbroken tradition of the Mar Thoma Syrian 
Church that it was founded by the Apostle Saint 
Thomas in the year of our Lord 52. This proposal 
is based on the Lambeth Quadrilateral, including ac- 
ceptance of "the historic Episcopate, locally adapted." 
While no church has done all that it should have 
done for the sake of unity there has been in the 
Anglican Communion a deep desire and longing for it 
ever since the divisions took place. Many are the 
scholars and saintly leaders of her fold who have given 
their prayers and labors in its behalf. Names come to 
mind at once like those of Andrewes, Hooker, Taylor, 
John Hales, Neale, Muhlenberg, Pusey, and, in more 
recent time, John Wordsworth, William P. DuBose, 
W. J. Birkbeck and W. R. Huntington. Although 
she has fallen short, like others, and at times 
her course has not been consistent with this, it may 
be said with justice of the Anglican Church that the 
longing for unity is one of the deepest notes of her 
life. Misunderstood often, and, not unnaturally, 
from opposite sides, she has held steadfastly the dif- 
ficult middle position in which she was put, and has 
persisted in the hope that she might be allowed to 
serve in the work of reconciliation. Of earlier efforts 
and movements this is not the place to speak. We 
are considering here the present outlook for unity and, 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 49 

in this connection, the declaration by the Anglican 
Church known as the Lambeth Quadrilateral holds 
epoch-making place. 

This pronouncement, which originated in the Amer- 
ican Episcopal Church, was issued first by the House 
of Bishops at the General Convention, in Chicago, in 
1886, and was adopted, with slight modifications, by 
the Lambeth Conference in 1888. In 1899 Dr. Wil- 
liam R. Huntington, from whom came the first sug- 
gestion of the Quadrilateral, wrote of it, " Whether 
that eirenicon be indeed the vain shadow which some 
have been hasty to pronounce it, men can better judge 
after its terms shall have been honestly lived up to in 
the house of its friends. Fifty years will be a short 
time for the test" Only about twenty years have 
passed since those words were written but the value 
of this Declaration has been abundantly proved. Its 
results are to-day plainly evident. At this time move- 
ments towards unity based on the Lambeth Quadri- 
lateral are under consideration in India, in Africa, in 
Australia, in England and in the United States. 

At the General Convention of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church held in Cincinnati, in 1910, a movement 
was inaugurated to bring about a World Conference 
on Faith and Order to be participated in by all Chris- 
tian Communions, throughout the world both Cath- 
olic and Protestant which confess our Lord Jesus 
Christ as God and Saviour. In spite of the great diffi- 



50 THE CALL TO UNITY 

culties arising from the war the work of preparation 
for this gathering has steadily proceeded. Almost all 
the great Communions of the world, including the 
Eastern and Anglican Churches have identified them- 
selves with the movement and the assembling of the 
Conference at no distant day, seems now to be an 
assured fact. An important preliminary Conference 
for the furtherance of this undertaking is shortly to be 
held at Geneva. In England the preparatory work 
for the World Conference has brought forth two re- 
markable Interim Reports signed jointly by leading 
representatives of the Free Churches and of the Church 
of England. The second of these reports, which 
marks notable advance in the movement towards 
unity, contains the following statement: 

" It is the purpose of our Lord that believers in 
Him should be one visible society, and this unity is 
essential to the purpose of Christ for His Church 
and for its effective witness and work in the world. 
The conflict among Christian nations has brought 
home to us with a greater poignancy the disastrous 
results of the divisions which prevail among Chris- 
tians, inasmuch as they have hindered that growth of 
mutual understanding which it should be the function 
of the Church to foster, and because a Church which 
is itself divided cannot speak effectively to a divided 
world." 

" The visible unity of believers which answers to 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 5 1 

our Lord's purpose must have its source and sanc- 
tion, not in any human arrangements, but in the will 
of the One Father, manifested in the Son, and ef- 
fected through the operation of the Spirit; and it must 
express and maintain the fellowship of His people 
with one another in Him. Thus the visible unity of 
the Body of Christ is not adequately expressed in the 
cooperation of the Christian Churches for moral in- 
fluence and social service, though such cooperation 
might with great advantage be carried much further 
than it is at present; it could only be fully realized 
through community of worship, faith, and order, in- 
cluding common participation in the Lord's Supper. 
This would be quite compatible with a rich diversity 
in life and worship." 

A few years ago no such words as these could have 
been jointly written, and put forth, by leading theolo- 
gians of the Church of England and of the Non- 
Conformist Churches. 

Whatever the visible results of the proposed World 
Conference may be, or even if through some now un- 
foreseen difficulties it should fail to meet, the effort 
to bring it about has been of incalculable value. The 
preparation for it has been perhaps as important as 
the Conference itself. This work carried on during 
a period of ten years has been a world wide campaign 
in the cause of Unity. It has kept the thought of 
unity before the minds of Christians everywhere. 



52 THE CALL TO UNITY 

It has emphasized the fact that the United Church 
must include all the vital truth for which both Prot- 
estantism and Catholicism stand. It has held in view 
the fact that the only basis possible for unity among 
Christians is belief in Our Lord Jesus Christ as God 
and Saviour. 

It has helped to make clear to all the fact that 
unity is to be reached, not by cutting away, but by 
building up, not by disregard of truth, but by fuller 
apprehension of it. It has stood for the fact that 
every group of Christians holds truth which it has 
received from God, and has its special contribution 
to make, which is needed in the full life of the visible 
Church. It has promoted in all directions that hu- 
man fellowship and personal contact which is so im- 
portant a factor in reaching mutual understanding. 
It has helped to create the atmosphere in which alone 
unity can come to pass. Above all else it has in- 
creased the number of Christians, of all names, who 
are praying in union with Our Lord's own prayer 
"that they all may be one." In his Bedell Lectures 
on " A National Church," in 1898, Dr. Huntington 
wrote, " It is certainly among things conceivable — 
who shall say that it is not ? — that God in His provi- 
dence may be preparing the way for a General Coun- 
cil of Christendom that shall be truly such." It is 
this which is the aim of the World Conference. And 
surely it is cause for thankfulness that such a gather- 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 53 

ing can now be seriously contemplated; that we have 
reached the time when it seems possible to hold that 
" gracious interview of friends so long divided " for 
which good John Hales prayed three hundred years 
ago; that after centuries of estrangement Christians are 
now preparing to meet together not for controversy 
but for conference; not to see how much they differ, 
but to see how much they are at one ; to face the 
differences honestly, but in the spirit of love and 
brotherhood, with the desire, and prayer, that Our 
Lord's will for the visible unity of His Church may be 
fulfilled. It is hoped that the Roman Catholic Church 
may yet find it possible, in some way to participate. 
If it shall be God's will for this great Conference to 
assemble, representing all, or almost all, the Christian 
Communions of the world, who shall say what may 
be possible in such a gathering, who shall estimate its 
effect upon the imaginations and the hearts of men, 
who shall measure its moral and spiritual power, or 
predict what the results following from it may be ? 

At the last General Convention, held in Detroit, in 
191 9, a Proposal was presented providing for ap- 
proach towards unity between the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church and the Congregational Church, and a 
Commission was appointed to confer officially upon 
this subject with a like Commission appointed by the 
National Council of Congregational Churches. This 
proposal which has come to be known as the " Con- 



54 THE CALL TO UNITY 

cordat," was the result of informal conferences pre- 
viously held between representatives of the Congre- 
gational and Protestant Episcopal Churches. It sug- 
gests a mutual agreement and arrangement under 
which, without casting doubt or reflection upon the 
reality or efficacy of their present ministry, Congre- 
gational ministers may apply for ordination to the 
office of the Priesthood by a Bishop of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. It is agreed that a minister thus 
applying for ordination must do so with the consent 
of his own ecclesiastical authorities and of his con- 
gregation, that he shall satisfy the Bishop that he 
holds the historic faith of the Church, as contained in 
the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, that he shall then be 
confirmed, that he shall be ordained Deacon and Priest, 
and that thereafter in ministering the Sacraments of 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper he shall use a pre- 
scribed form which, while it shall be the minimum, 
shall include all that can be rightly regarded as essen- 
tial. The minister thus ordained is then to continue 
his ministrations in his own religious organization 
but is to remain under the guidance and discipline of 
the Bishop and is to meet the Bishop, at such times 
as may be arranged, " for Communion, and for coun- 
sel and cooperation.' ' 

This proposal is recognized by both sides to be im- 
perfect, and only an interim measure. It is not looked 
upon as an arrangement which could be permanently 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 55 

satisfactory. It is not a comprehensive scheme of 
unity but is suggested only as " a practical approach 
toward eventual union by the establishment of inter- 
communion in particular instances." If carried into 
effect, however, it may prove to be an important 
step in the direction of reunion. Whether the results 
arrived at by the further official conferences, now 
taking place, will receive the approval of the govern- 
ing bodies of the two Communions, remains to be 
seen. However this may be all must recognize, and 
pay honor to, the nobility of purpose, the breadth of 
mind, and the truly Christian spirit shown by the 
eminent Congregationalists who, at no small risk of 
misunderstanding on the part of some of their own 
brethren, have indicated their readiness, under care- 
fully prescribed conditions, to receive Episcopal ordi- 
nation to the priesthood, and to make such great con- 
cessions for the sake of unity. Such a spirit shown 
by leading ministers of a great Protestant Communion 
is an example, and a challenge to all of us. It gives 
new hope and promise to the outlook for unity. And 
this is only one of a number of definite proposals now 
under consideration in various parts of the world 
for approach towards unity on the basis of the Chi- 
cago Lambeth Quadrilateral. 

The plan suggested by the Bishop of London for 
approach between the Church of England and the 
Wesleyan Methodist Church, and that suggested by 



56 THE CALL TO UNITY 

the Bishop of Zanzibar as a basis for the union of 
the Churches in East Africa are, in principle, the same 
as the proposed Concordat between the Congrega- 
tional and Episcopal Churches in the United States. 
There are some who see danger in these efforts to- 
wards unity, and no doubt there are risks involved in 
them. But there are risks also in our present situa- 
tion. There is grave danger to the Faith of Christ 
in the continuance of our present divisions. It is 
these which are paralyzing the Church and producing 
apostasy and unbelief among men. But, whatever the 
attitude of individuals, or particular Communions, to- 
wards it, the approach towards unity is taking place. 
We can be in no doubt as to this. The signs of it 
are unmistakable. God the Spirit is moving over 
the chaos of our divisions. On all sides, and in quar- 
ters where this might least have been expected, men 
are seeing the vision of fellowship and brotherhood. 
If we will, we may have our part in bringing it to 
pass. But whether we do our part, or not, its com- 
ing will not tarry. For the vision is from Christ 
Himself. And because it is from Him, it will be ful- 
filled. 



Ill 

THE APPROACH TO UNITY 

The call to unity is clear. The outlook for it is 
more hopeful than at any time since the visible unity of 
the Church was lost. In many directions movement 
towards reunion is taking place. But there are incal- 
culable difficulties yet to be met and overcome. There 
are still those who believe that divisions among Chris- 
tians are to be acquiesced in as unavoidable ; there are 
those who hold that we cannot have freedom in the 
Church without sectarianism, and there are those who 
believe in unity, but are opposed to any measures 
which might help to bring it into effect. And the 
great divide between Protestantism and Catholicism 
is yet to be crossed. How are we to continue the 
present advance? What are the next steps to be 
taken? What are the principles which must guide us 
in our further progress? The first requisite for fur- 
ther advance towards unity is that the desire for it 
shall be far more keenly felt among Christian people 
generally. It is not enough for this desire to be felt 
by the leaders. The unity of the Church cannot be 
accomplished by arrangement among Bishops, Moder- 

57 



58 THE CALL TO UNITY 

ators and General Secretaries. If the leaders of the 
various Communions should to-morrow reach agree- 
ment this would be ineffective if it had not behind it 
the conscience and conviction of the great mass of 
Christian people. The leaders cannot, in fact, move 
far in advance of those whom they are to lead in this 
matter. Until there is a sincere and general desire 
for unity schemes for its promotion will meet with 
only limited success. Our great effort must be to 
propagate the desire for unity. The war has taught 
us the power of propaganda both for good and for 
evil. We need now a wisely and vigorously conducted 
propaganda for the peace and unity of the Church. 
The longing for unity must be aroused until, wherever 
Christians assemble, prayer for its restoration will be 
offered up. If Christians everywhere, at their Masses 
and at their Prayer Meetings, wherever they assemble 
in Christ's Name, were earnestly praying for unity, 
the day of its coming would not be long deferred. 
Only through prayer can we find grace so to sur- 
render our wills that the Holy Spirit of Unity can 
accomplish His work in and through us. It should 
now be the constant prayer of all of us, both in pub- 
lic and in private, that God will put into our hearts 
the spirit of fellowship, that He will show us clearly 
what is His will, and that He will give His guidance 
especially to those placed in positions of responsibility 
and leadership. 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 59 

But if we are intelligently to desire, and pray for, 
unity we must have clearly before us what its mean- 
ing is, and what it involves. There is great need to- 
day for clear thinking about unity. People of a prac- 
tical, business-like, type of mind often ask, somewhat 
impatiently, why there should be all this talk about 
unity. If we want unity all that we have to do, ac- 
cording to their view, is to forget our differences, and 
get together, and the thing is done. This attitude, 
strongly as it may commend itself to the man in the 
street, or the man on the train, does not, however, argue 
deep thought, or close acquaintance with the problem. 
It is usually the position of those to whom all ques- 
tions of Christian doctrine seem equally meaningless 
and unimportant. We are to agree on everything in 
general because no one longer believes anything in par- 
ticular. But this is not the path by which Christian 
unity is to be reached. In the first place we must not 
dismiss " talk " as a thing wholly without value in 
this, or in any other cause. How would the progress 
thus far made towards unity have been accomplished 
without " talk " ? Those who are called to the work 
of the Ministry should, it would seem, be the last to 
undervalue this instrumentality. Much reason as 
there may be for the Scriptural reference to " the fool- 
ishness of preaching " the Gospel has nevertheless 
been propagated by human speech. 

What we need is far more talk, of the right kind, 



6o THE CALL TO UNITY 

if the cause of unity is to be advanced. And, fur- 
ther, it must be recognized that the problem of unity 
involves the deepest and most sacred convictions of 
men's souls. These are not to be waved aside by an 
impatient gesture. The wounds of a thousand years 
cannot be healed over night. We shall not make true 
approach towards unity by ignoring or slurring over 
the difficulties. It is quite true that we must not 
dwell unnecessarily on these, and that we must em- 
phasize our agreements. But there are differences 
which are deep and real, which are felt by earnest 
Christians to be vital, and which must be honestly 
faced and dealt with. If in some way, unity could 
be brought about without facing these difficulties it 
would be unreal, and would have neither power nor 
permanence. One of the chief obstacles to progress 
has been the fear that the advocates of unity were 
going to sacrifice, or compromise, principles. We 
must make it clear that this is not what is desired or 
purposed. It is for this reason that thought about 
unity must not be confined to conferences of leaders, 
but must be much more general among Christian peo- 
ple. We may be quite sure, as Bishop Hall says, that 
the cause of unity is to be promoted " by hearty loy- 
alty to actual and present obligations, not by self- 
willed eccentricity/ ' " If we are failing in known 
or plain duties, neglecting privileges, and despising 
discipline, how can we expect to win others to an 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 6l 

ordered and united Christian life?" 1 We must set 
ourselves earnestly and intelligently to understand our 
own position as Christians, whatever this may be. 
We must ask if there is real justification for the con- 
tinued separation of our respective Communions, from 
the rest of the Christian Church and, if so, what this 
is. 

The only thing which can justify any of us in con- 
tinued separation is that we are holding for others, 
as well as for ourselves, some truth, or principle, es- 
sential to the Gospel, and to the life of the United 
Church, which would be lost or jeopardized, if we 
should at once unite with other Christians. But we 
must be sure that this principle which we are holding 
in trust is an essential one, and that our present enter- 
ing into union with others would actually involve its 
loss or compromise. We must discriminate between 
our principles and our preferences, or our prejudices. 
And we know how easy it is for the best, and wisest, 
of us to confuse the one of these with the other. 
Differences there are which are matters of principle, 
but we must not rest helpless even before these. We 
must ask if these opposing principles are actually ir- 
reconcilable. We must ask whether these apparently 
contrary positions may not after all both of them be 
essential, and whether there is not some still higher 
truth in the light of which they can be reconciled. It 

1 Lenten Pastoral, 191 1. 



62 THE CALL TO UNITY 

is this irenic task to which Christian scholars and 
theologians of all names are now called. 

We must not only understand our own position as 
Christians, and the reasons, if there are any, for our 
continued separation, we must get clearly before our 
minds what the unity of the Christian Church means. 
If there is still doubt, or misgiving, or apathy in re- 
gard to Christian unity, this arises largely from lack 
of a true conception of it. Our need now is not so 
much impassioned appeals for unity, as clear exposi- 
tions of its meaning. 

There is among all Christians a true inward unity 
of the Spirit. Baptized into Christ, and joined to 
Him by faith, we are members one of another as we 
are sharers of His life. We are all members of the 
Church which is His Body. This is the fundamental 
fact. It is this fact of our actual, existing, oneness 
in Christ which gives possibility, and hope, of unity 
in its full realization, and it is this which makes our 
divisions so unnatural. It is the fact of our brother- 
hood which makes schism a sin. We cannot empha- 
size too strongly the reality of this inner unity of the 
Spirit which now binds all Christians together. But 
obviously this inner, invisible, unity alone is not suffi- 
cient. It does not fulfill our own ideal of a com- 
plete unity. It does not fulfill our Lord's desire for 
the fellowship of His disciples, as this is declared to 
us in the New Testament. And it does not give the 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 63 

needed witness of Christ's power to an unbelieving 
world. We cannot be satisfied, and the world will 
not be convinced, by a merely invisible unity. In this 
world soul must have a body, spirit must have out- 
ward manifestation. If our unity of the Spirit were 
all that it should be it would necessarily express itself 
in visible fellowship ; so long as it fails to do this it is 
imperfect and incomplete. Manifestly our unity is 
not what it should be while Christians do not meet 
together at the Table of the Lord. 

It is feared by some, however, that the visible unity 
of the Church might be too much a matter of mere 
outward organization. This is a fear to be heeded, 
and a danger, if it exists, to be sedulously guarded 
against. A unity of mere external organization would 
be no unity at all. It would be a body without a soul, 
lifeless and useless for the work of the Spirit. But 
there is no reason why organization should be over- 
emphasized in the United Church. The primary ob- 
ject of unity is not the strengthening of organization, 
but the deepening and enlarging of spiritual life. Its 
great purpose is that, coming into fellowship with 
one another, we may come also into fuller fellowship 
with Christ, and may manifest Him more truly to 
the world. But our inner unity in Christ must be 
exhibited in a fellowship which men can see. What 
is needed is such outward organization, and only such, 
as will give expression to the inward fact, and make 



64 THE CALL TO UNITY 

the Church the effective organ, and witness, of the 
Living Christ. No mere system of federation can 
meet this need or can take the place of unity. Unity 
is the fellowship, in soul and deed, of those who are 
one. Federation is the joint action of those who are 
still divided. Cooperation in good works to the ut- 
most possible extent among separated Communions 
is admirable and most helpful. But, as Christians, 
we are called not to acquiesce in divisions, we are 
called to end them. We want not a " gentlemen's 
agreement " among those who continue in separation 
but the unity of those who belong to one family, and 
dwell in one household. The unity which we seek 
is not something which we can make. It is some- 
thing which God gives. It is from above, not from 
below. It is the life of the one Spirit knitting us 
together in the one Body. Let us remember that we 
are not called upon to create the unity of the Church. 
Ours is the humbler task of ceasing to obstruct and 
obscure it. We are called upon to manifest the unity 
which already exists. We are called not to create a 
Church in which Christians may become united, but 
to restore the broken unity of the Church created by 
Christ Himself in which we are inwardly and spirit- 
ually one. We are called to let the world see the 
unity which is already ours in Christ. 

Unity is necessary for the Church's witness, that 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 65 

men may see in her the evidence of Christ's continued 
presence with us. 

Unity is necessary for the Church's work, that she 
may be the effective organ of Christ's power able to 
act and speak in His Name, and to overcome the evil 
in the world. 

Unity is necessary for the fullness of the Church's 
message. A divided Church can neither apprehend, 
nor teach, the full truth of Christ. Denominational- 
ism is necessarily one-sided. It makes for dispropor- 
tion, narrowness of view, over-emphasis on some ele- 
ments of truth and neglect of other elements. 

Unity is necessary for the fullness of life in the 
Church. The development of special spiritual types 
in separated groups is a loss to all. The contact of 
all types in the one household is needed for interest 
and stimulus, for mutual education and discipline, 
for the enrichment and full realization of Christian 
character. Each group of Christians needs to share 
the spiritual experience, and the special spiritual gifts 
of each other group. Only in unity and fellowship 
can we learn the full meaning of our Christian 
heritage. Great ranges of new power in Christ will 
open to all of us in the life of the United Church. 

We want unity not only for the sake of strength, 
or of peace, but for the sake of life, life for ourselves 
and for others. We want unity not only that our 



66 THE CALL TO UNITY 

fellow Christians may bring us spiritual treasures 
which we have not, but also that we and they together 
may more truly enter into those which we have. Our 
lack of communion with each other obstructs and 
hinders our communion with Christ. 

We want unity so that all of us may receive more 
fully the grace and life that are in Him. We want it 
in order that Christ Himself may be accepted, that 
His glory may be revealed, that His Kingdom may 
be established among men. 

If, however, we are to make true approach towards 
unity, there are certain essential principles by which 
we must be guided. We must be guided in the first 
place by the principle of Christian loyalty. In loy- 
alty to Christ we may not, even for the sake of unity, 
surrender, nor compromise the truth of the Gospel. 
The Gospel is from above. It is not a human phi- 
losophy. It is a message received from God. We 
must be true to it. We must " keep that which is 
committed to our trust." In the Church of God, we 
are not in the position of mere seekers after truth, 
we are seekers after deeper knowledge of the truth 
clearly revealed in Christ. Our faith rests not on 
subjective opinions and impressions, but on the reali- 
ties of a Divine revelation, on actual, definite, historic 
facts. Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, ascended and 
lives still with us in His Church. We cannot change 
or modify these facts. They happened, or they did 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 67 

not happen. They are true, or they are not true. 
And if they are not true our " faith is vain," as St. 
Paul tells us. 1 

The Christian Religion is what Christ makes it, not 
what any of us think, or feel, about it. Approach 
towards unity will be made not by disregard of Chris- 
tian truth, but by fuller and deeper apprehension of 
it. As believers in Christ we cannot take the posi- 
tion that creed and doctrine are unimportant. Doc- 
trine is only a definite statement of that which is be- 
lieved to be true. Truth, which is the voice of God, 
is not unimportant in religion. A religion only of 
sentiment or feeling could not satisfy us. Religion 
must speak to the need of the whole man, mind, heart 
and spirit. The Christian Religion does so speak. 
Jesus Christ is "the Life," to be lived, but He is 
also the Truth to be believed. Religion without 
doctrine would be religion without a knowledge of 
Christ. Some quite unessential results of theo- 
logical speculation have been taught as doctrines. 
Other doctrines are the soul and substance of the Gos- 
pel. It is true that a belief in right doctrine alone is 
not sufficient. A man may believe all the articles of 
the Christian Faith and not be in any real sense a Chris- 
tian. It is quite true that we need to be more sim- 
ple in our faith. But this does not mean that we can 
discard doctrine. For a Christian, religion means 

1 I Cor. xv, 14. 



68 THE CALL TO UNITY 

personal faith in, and relationship with the living 
Christ. But if we are to be in relationship with 
Christ we must know Who He is, what is His present 
power, how we may have fellowship with Him, and 
these are all questions of doctrine. The answer to 
these questions is our creed. 

The foundation of approach towards unity is our 
common belief in Christ as God and Saviour. This 
is the faith which unites us not only with Christians 
throughout the world to-day, but with all the Church 
of the past, which is now the Church in Paradise. 
This is the only basis upon which it would be possible 
for Christians to unite. " Other foundation can no 
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
No Christian Communion could give up that which it 
believes to be essential to the revelation received in 
Christ, nor could it desire any other Communion to 
do this. In the phrase of the Archbishop of York, 
as expanded by the Bishop of Bombay, unity will 
come " not by compromise for the sake of peace, or 
of success, but by comprehension for the sake of truth, 
and of life." We do not want " a reduced Christian- 
ity." We shall all be richer, not poorer, in faith, in 
the life of the United Church. The question is not 
what is each Communion willing to surrender, but 
what has each Communion to contribute that is true, 
and vital, and from God. 

It is becoming clear to us that our affirmations of 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 69 

faith are more important than our negations, and it is 
these which will lead us towards unity. We at last 
see clearly, and in this lies the great present hope of 
progress, that each separated group of Christians 
holds gifts of truth and life which it may not sur- 
render, but which are needed for the life and fullness 
of the whole Church. We do not wish to see any 
Communion compromise its convictions, or " disown 
its past/' The United Church will be more than a 
return to the faith of the first days. The spiritual 
struggles of these later times have had their meaning 
also. The United Church will contain all the revela- 
tion given in Christ, all the great Catholic heritage 
of the Church of the first centuries, but it will con- 
tain also all the spiritual fruit, all the rich product, 
of the Christian faith and experience of the genera- 
tions since, including that which has been developed 
through the stress, and trial, and discipline of our 
divisions. 

We must be guided by the principle of Christian 
loyalty, but also, and equally, in our approach towards 
unity, we must be guided by the principle of Christian 
liberty. In loyalty to Christ we may not demand, 
as a condition of unity with our fellow Christians, 
anything that is not actually essential to Christian 
faith and life. If we demand acceptance of that which 
is not essential, if we require that which Christ Him- 
self would not require for fellowship in His Church, 



yO THE CALL TO UNITY 

then, whether consciously or unconsciously, we are 
placing obstacles in the way of His work in this world. 
We are opposing the will of Christ that His follow- 
ers may be visibly one; we are making it harder for 
the world to believe that God has sent Him. It is 
now time for " each Church to judge for itself, as it 
would be judged by its Lord, whether it so holds its 
own position as to prevent any other part of the 
Church from communion with the whole Church/' 

Proper freedom for all in the Christian life, oppor- 
tunity for full spiritual realization and expression, 
liberty in its highest meaning, in voluntary obedience 
to God's law, this is itself a principle of the Gospel 
which must be sacredly guarded. As we approach to- 
wards unity we need more reverent thought, clearer 
knowledge, deeper insight into Christian truth, that 
we may see it in right proportion, that we may do jus- 
tice to the views of those who differ from us, that we 
may distinguish between principles and preferences, 
between the essential and the non-essential. People 
imagine too often that by unity is meant uniformity 
in all sorts of details of faith or worship which are 
no part of the essence of our religion, but matters only 
of opinion, taste, or preference. Unity does not 
mean that we are to be deprived of our lawful Chris- 
tian liberty in these matters, nor that other Christians 
are to be deprived of theirs. It does not involve our 
conforming precisely to their pattern, nor their con- 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY Jl 

forming precisely to ours. The Anglican and Free 
Church signers of the English " Interim Report " say 
truly that " the visible unity of the Body of Christ 
is not adequately expressed in the cooperation of the 
Christian Churches for moral influence and social 
service/' and can " only be fully realized through com- 
munity of worship, faith, and order, including common 
participation in the Lord's Supper," but they add with 
equal truth, " this would be quite compatible with a 
rich diversity in life and worship. " 

It would not be inconsistent with unity if the differ- 
ent groups of Christians should continue their present 
organizations, with entire control of their own affairs, 
with all their special usages and methods, provided 
that these usages are in accord with the principles of 
the common Faith, and recognizing that, in these un- 
essential matters, a like freedom must be allowed to 
all others. Why should not the various groups so 
carry on their work for Christ, not as opposed, and 
separated, Communions, but as mutually helpful, and 
fully recognized parts of the one great Church? Why 
should not each group have all the independence which 
it now has, not only as to administration, and meth- 
ods of practical work, but as to ritual, as to forms 
of worship, as to devotional expression, as to em- 
phasis on particular aspects of doctrine or spiritual 
life, provided only that this shall all be in accord with 
the accepted common standard as to essentials ? Why 



72 THE CALL TO UNITY 

should not each group continue to have this freedom, 
with the still greater freedom added of full, unhin- 
dered access to, and fellowship with all other groups? 
There is no Protestant principle against this. There 
is certainly no Catholic principle against it. The 
Catholic rule is " unity in things essential, liberty in 
things non-essential, charity in all." This is in ac- 
cord, and nothing less free is in accord, with every 
principle of Christ's religion. 

All Christians could then continue to be identified 
with the group to which they felt drawn by tradition, 
association, or temperament, the varied customs, the 
special spiritual excellences of each would be pre- 
served and continued for the enrichment of the life of 
the whole Church, but schism would be at an end, 
extremes would be balanced and tempered, all would 
feel a new power through their fellowship in the one 
visible Church. The thing essential for Christian 
unity is not oneness in details of worship, or in 
methods of administration, but such fellowship in 
faith and order as shall make possible full inter- 
communion without doubt or question in the minds 
of any. The Bishop of London, in his proposal 
for unity with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, says 
" The Methodist Church would continue its class 
meetings, and its Conferences," it " would retain its 
Connection, and its order in the reunited Church " and 
would " go on with its habits and its practices undis- 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 73 

turbed." In his proposal for unity among the various 
Communions in East Africa the Bishop of Zanzibar 
says " Non-Episcopal bodies accepting Episcopacy 
would remain in full exercise of their own constitu- 
tions, working parallel with the present Episcopal 
churches." It is fellowship at the Table of the Lord 
which is the essential matter. This is the true realiza- 
tion, the indispensable requisite, the sign and seal of 
unity. Without this, unity among Christians cannot 
be truly manifested. The Sacraments of Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper are of Divine appointment, and are 
therefore essential. They were instituted, and com- 
manded to be continued, by our Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself. But the particular form of service to be 
used when these Sacraments are administered is not 
essential, except in so far as this is necessary to en- 
sure their ministration in accordance with our Lord's 
institution of them. This secured, the form of serv- 
ice may be long or short, simple or ornate, liturgical 
or non-liturgical with equal loyalty to essential prin- 
ciple. The Lambeth Quadrilateral specifies, as to the 
method of administering these Sacraments, only that 
they shall be " ministered with unfailing use of Christ's 
words of institution, and the elements ordained by 
Him." 

In the administration of Baptism the use of the sign 
of the Cross is not essential, nor is the provision of 
Sponsors, nor the method of using the water whether 



74 THE CALL TO UNITY 

by immersion or by pouring. In the administration 
of the Lord's Supper the use of vestments is not es- 
sential, nor is the form or arrangement of the Church 
building, nor the manner in which the congregation 
receives the Sacrament. In these and all such non- 
essential matters we must be willing to allow full free- 
dom to all. We must require no more as a condition 
of fellowship than is actually essential. If we would 
be Catholic, and Christian, we must be true not only 
to the principle of loyalty, but also to the principle 
of liberty. We may feel, and with good reason, the 
importance and spiritual value of an orderly and beau- 
tiful ceremonial of worship. But worship just as 
real may be offered in the tent of a traveling evangelist 
as in the noblest cathedral. It is true that the Liturgy 
comes to us with the authority and weight of most 
sacred use and association. Those of us who have 
inherited it, and who know its power could never 
forego its use. But we should not be justified in 
requiring this of others. We have no right to insist 
either that all Christians shall worship with a book, 
or that all shall worship without one. Eastern Chris- 
tians are accustomed to pray standing up. There is 
no reason why they should be compelled to kneel, nor 
why Anglicans or others, should be prevented from 
doing so. The dress worn by the minister at Divine 
service is not an essential matter. The use of special 
vestments may appear to us highly proper, and may 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 75 

have many advantages, but it is not a matter of Di- 
vine prescription as to which we may demand uniform- 
ity. Scholars tells us in fact that special vestments 
did not come into general use until about the seventh 
century. Before that time the clergy wore the ordi- 
nary dress of the day both in church and out of it. 
And the use of a distinctive dress by the clergy did 
not, as some may imagine, originate with Rome. 
The custom originated in the Eastern and Gallican 
Churches and was disapproved by Rome. A pope of 
the fifth century wrote to certain Gallican Bishops 
who were guilty of these innovations, much as a Pres- 
byterian of the old school might write to-day, " We 
should be distinguished from the people by our learning, 
not by our clothes. " 

The dress of the minister in the service of the Church 
has its value and importance, as thirteen hundred years 
of usage may attest, but it is not essential that the ser- 
mon should be preached either in a surplice, or in a 
black gown, and the Holy Communion may be validly 
celebrated in alb and chasuble, in a military uniform, 
or in any other garb. The Lambeth Articles say not 
one word about ritual. The Book of Common Prayer 
says that " the particular forms of Divine Worship, 
and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used 
therein " are " things in their own nature indifferent, 
and alterable, and so acknowledged." This does not 
mean that we are to have no law as to the form of 



j6 THE CALL TO UNITY 

worship, or that the members of a particular Com- 
munion are not bound by such prescription as to wor- 
ship and ritual as may be made by their own duly con- 
stituted authorities. They are manifestly under obli- 
gation to abide by such provisions. It does mean that 
no existing Communion should wish, or would have 
the right, to impose its own customs upon other Chris- 
tians, or to demand conformity in these matters as a 
condition of fellowship. 

There is complete intercommunion and unity between 
the Episcopal Church in the United States and the 
Episcopal Church in Australia or Canada or else- 
where, but these Churches are under the direction 
of no central organization, or authority. Each is en- 
tirely independent of the other in its administration, 
each has in many respects, and is free further to de- 
velop, its own customs and usages, in harmony with 
the common standard of Faith. Their Bishops meet 
together in conference at Lambeth once in ten years, 
but attendance at this gathering is voluntary, and the 
conference possesses no governmental authority or 
function. It is true that each of these Churches uses 
the Book of Common Prayer, and this is a strong 
bond. But this is not essential to their unity. The 
Episcopal Church in the United States changes, or re- 
vises, the Prayer Book as it sees fit, without consulta- 
tion with its sister Churches, and would be free even 



THE APPROACH TO' UNITY 7*] 

to dispense with the use of this noble book of worship 
if it should ever wish to do so. 

It would be a great step on the way to unity if 
Christians would now recognize that in non-essential 
matters there must be liberty in all parts of the Church, 
with full room for the free working of the Spirit. 
Why should it be difficult for us to live side by side 
in the same Church with groups of Christians who in 
these matters are more primitive, or less primitive, 
more given to simplicity, or more given to demonstra- 
tion, than we are ourselves? 

The question which the world is now asking is not 
as to any minor or secondary matter, but as to whether 
Christianity is from above, as to whether Jesus Christ 
still lives among us, as to whether there is truth and 
hope and life eternal in the Gospel. It is this ques- 
tion which must be answered with the full power of 
a united testimony. 

What is needed now is a United Church so faithful 
to the Gospel, so free, so filled with the spirit of love 
and fellowship that in it the presence and glory of 
Christ shall be made manifest. 

The third principle which must guide us in our 
approach towards unity is the principle of ecumeni- 
city. We must have always in mind the ultimate 
ideal, the only full and sufficient goal, the reunion of 
the whole Church of Christ throughout all the world. 



y8 THE CALL TO UNITY 

Nothing lower, or less, than this can satisfy us; for 
nothing less will fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ. 
We must be true, always, to this final purpose. All 
that we undertake in the cause of unity must be in 
conformity with this, and must be tested by it. Par- 
tial and local movements towards unity are to be en- 
couraged, and promoted, to the fullest possible extent. 
But we must do nothing, for the sake of local and 
temporary gain, which conflicts with the ultimate aim, 
or which would lessen our power to help towards its 
attainment. We shall not be making progress if, in 
our efforts to close one breach, we tear others wider 
open. It is plain, for example, that the Anglican 
Church would not be serving the cause of reunion if, 
for the sake of much to be desired closer approach to 
the Protestant Communions, she were to let go that 
which she holds in common with the Catholic Com- 
munions of both the East and the West. In all Com- 
munions we must hold fast to those central principles 
upon which alone Christians throughout the world can 
be united. We must keep the full vision of unity be- 
fore us. But we must not wait for the vision to real- 
ize itself. God does not so teach us to do our work 
for Him. 

There are some who are so eager for unity that 
they seem ready to cast all questions of faith to the 
winds. A Church so united would have lost the se- 
cret of its life and would have no power to help and 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 79 

save the world. There are others who are so fearful 
that the Faith may be compromised that they are op- 
posed to action of any sort. Unity, they seem to feel, 
is to be desired, and prayed for, but nothing is to be 
done to bring it about. Its accomplishment is to be 
left wholly to God. Each of these positions is, at 
bottom, a faithless one. We must pray, but we must 
act also. If faith without works is dead, prayer with- 
out corresponding action is equally so. 

The blessing is promised to those who make peace, 
not to those who wait for peace to come to pass of 
itself. We must believe and go forward. More than 
ever before we must recognize that true inner unity 
which already exists between ourselves and our fellow 
Christians of every name, Catholic and Protestant. 
We must recognize more fully that we are all brethren 
in Christ. We must not only accept but seek oppor- 
tunities to express this fellowship, publicly and pri- 
vately, in every way that is possible under existing 
conditions. This attitude and spirit shown by all of 
us would carry us far. It would soften our preju- 
dices, enlarge our hearts, widen our outlook, and pro- 
duce the atmosphere in which the Spirit of Peace can 
do His holy work. 

If, as some feel, there are dangers in too close ap- 
proach to our fellow Christians, it is certain that there 
are dangers in remaining apart from them. If a true 
theology is essential for the full realization of unity, 



80 THE CALL TO UNITY 

human fellowship may have much to do with its be- 
ginnings. At Camp Upton, where it was my privilege 
to serve for eleven months, the Chaplains, both Cath- 
olic and Protestant, met together each Wednesday 
morning to discuss plans for their common work. As 
the opening prayer was offered at those meetings all 
felt that God the Spirit was with us. No one was 
asked, or desired, to compromise his convictions. We 
knew that there were differences of faith among us, 
but we knew, still more deeply, that we were brethren 
in Christ, and found that we could both feel and work 
as such. The surest antidote for religious prejudice 
is human contact. The Gospel stands unalterably for 
truth, but its first principle is love. Whether it be 
called Catholic, or Protestant, there is something wrong 
with any theology which sees danger in personal con- 
tact, or which tends to separate men from their fellows. 

We Christians, of all names, must emphasize the 
fact of our brotherhood. We belong to one another 
in the bond which joins us to Christ. The things 
which unite us are indeed greater than the things which 
divide us. By virtue of our Baptism we are all mem- 
bers of the one Church, which is Christ's Body. It 
was the great Von Dollinger, in his Lectures on the 
Reunion of the Churches, who wrote : — 

" As being baptized we are all on either side broth- 
ers and sisters, we are all at bottom members of the 
Universal Church. In this great garden of God let 



THE APPROACH TO UNITY 8 1 

us shake hands with one another over the confessional 
hedges, and let us break them down so as to be able to 
embrace one another altogether." 

What we all need is closer fellowship with Christ. 
This is the path which will lead us to unity. It is 
unity which is needed to bring us the full blessing and 
power of our life in Christ, but it is closeness to 
Christ which is needed, above all else, to bring us to 
unity. It is lack of holiness in the lives of Christians 
which is the chief obstacle to the unity of the Church. 
If all of us were truly converted to Christ the way to 
unity would speedily be opened. If we are to have 
Christian unity we must be real Christians. The 
great effort in all Communions must be to raise the 
level of faith and life nearer to that which Christ 
would have it. The Church everywhere must make 
higher demand upon her people. She must ask higher 
things spiritually from all of us, clergy and people 
alike. In conjunction with the call to unity there 
must go out a call for more simple faith in Christ. 
It is this which will bring us nearer to each other. 
We are one in the life that is in Christ, and more 
deeply than we recognize, we are one also in faith. 
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, " God of God, 
Light of Light, Very God of Very God." Presby- 
terians, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Eastern Ortho- 
dox, Baptists, Congregationalists, Anglicans, we are 
all one in this, And the Christian religion is belief 



82 THE CALL TO UNITY 

in, and fellowship with, Christ our Lord. Other mat- 
ters are important, but this is the all important matter. 
This is the rock on which all our faith rests. From 
this follows all else that we believe. With this in 
common it must be possible for us to find the way to 
full fellowship. We must emphasize, and hold con- 
stantly in view, the things in which we are at one. 
" The Christian Church is one family, and Christians 
are brothers. It is a fact, not an aspiration. All 
Christians are brothers." 1 The cry which all of us, 
Christians of every name, need to hear to-day is " Sirs, 
ye are brethren." 

1 Unity and Schism, by T. A. Lacey, p. 158. 



IV 

THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 

Christian Unity is the greatest of all questions now 
before the Church, and the world. It goes to the 
root of human life, and underlies all the other prob- 
lems with which we have to deal. If Christianity- 
does not bring the spirit of fellowship into the rela- 
tionships and affairs of men, what other power is 
there to do this? The call to unity is from Christ 
Himself, and therefore it comes with compelling force 
to all Christians, Catholic and Protestant. In our ap- 
proach towards unity we must be true to the principle 
of Christian loyalty, and true, equally, to the principle 
of Christian liberty. Unity will be reached not by 
the path of elimination but by the path of inclusion; 
not by disregard of principle or conviction, but by 
recognition of the whole truth seen, and witnessed to, 
by opposing sides. The United Church must have 
place in it for " all that is vital and vitalizing." The 
only right, and the only possible, line of approach to- 
wards unity is that of fullest welcome to whatever is 
in accord with the principles of the Gospel and is 
of proved value in Christian life and experience. 

S3 



84 THE CALL TO UNITY 

In the providence of God, and by His ordering of 
the events of history, not by choice, or virtue of 
its own, the Anglican Communion has a unique op- 
portunity to further the advance of unity along 
this path. The Anglican Church is called now to 
realize, as never before, how great, how truly God- 
given is its opportunity to serve the cause of reunion. 
Anglicanism, we know well, has sins and shortcomings 
enough to acknowledge and repent. By its coldness, 
at times when the currents of its spiritual life ran 
low, it has discouraged enthusiasm, it has failed to 
sympathize with new movements, it has been respon- 
sible, in part, for divisions which might have been 
avoided. By its too great emphasis on uniformity, 
its formality and fear of novelty, it has repressed too 
much the spirit of individual enterprise, and the more 
emotional side of religious life. By its connection 
with the State, a connection not begun at the Reforma- 
tion, but existing through its identification with the 
English race from its earliest beginnings, the life and 
work of the Church of England have been in these later 
days hampered and hindered. All this and more we 
must acknowledge, but nevertheless the Anglican Com- 
munion has had its own great part to play in the life 
of the Christian Church, and it seems now to have a 
mission to fulfill for which it has been providentially 
prepared. The Anglican Church has stood both for 
the Catholic Faith and for the spirit of progress, for 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 85 

the principle of authority and the principle of free- 
dom; for the full recognition of both the supernatural 
and the natural; for the reality of Revelation and for 
the rights of reason. She has developed the temper 
of soberness, steadfastness, and wide tolerance. The 
characteristic notes of her life may be said to be sanity, 
charity and love of truth. She has shown her power 
to produce true saints, great leaders in social reform, 
sons and daughters whose names are among the great- 
est in history. One of her most distinctive contribu- 
tions has been her work in the field of scholarship. It 
was one of her wisest sons, the late Bishop Creighton, 
who described her as, " the Church of sound learn- 
ing. " So impartial a witness as Mr. Lecky says : 
" Looking at the Church of England from the intel- 
lectual side, it is plain how large a proportion of the 
best intellect of the country is contented, not only to 
live within it, but to take an active part in its minis- 
trations. There is hardly a branch of serious Eng- 
lish literature in which Anglican clergy are not con- 
spicuous. There is nothing in a false and supersti- 
tious creed incompatible with some forms of litera- 
ture (as, for example, poetical genius and beauty of 
style). But in the Church of England literary 
achievement is certainly not limited to these forms. 
In the fields of physical science, in the fields of moral 
philosophy, metaphysics, social, and even political phi- 
losophy, and perhaps still more in the fields of history, 



86 THE CALL TO UNITY 

its clergy have won places in the foremost rank . . . 
marked not only by profound learning, but, to an 
eminent degree, by judgment, criticism, impartiality, 
a desire for Truth, a skill in separating the proved 
from the false, or the merely probable. There is no 
other Church which has shown itself so capable of 
attracting and retaining the services of men of general 
learning, criticism and ability." 

Through the long centuries of her life, dating back 
to the days before there was a united nation in Brit- 
ain, the influence of the Church of England has been 
incalculable in producing that type of character which 
has given the English-speaking peoples their present 
place in the life of the world, and their great respon- 
sibility for its future. 

The Anglican Church has never for a moment 
thought of herself as the whole Church of Christ. 
Her highest claim has been that, in spite of her many 
insufficiencies, she is a true part of the Church. She 
has believed that she was holding certain essential 
principles to which she must bear faithful witness, as 
belonging to the fullness of the Gospel, and as neces- 
sary to the life of that United Church, the thought of 
which has been always in her mind. But while stead- 
fastly witnessing to these principles she has based 
upon them no exclusive claims for herself, and has 
passed no judgment upon those whose principles dif- 
fered from her own. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 87 

It has long been recognized that the Anglican 
Church has peculiar opportunity to be a reconciling 
influence in Christendom. The words of the Roman 
Catholic layman of France, de Maistre, have been 
often quoted. " If ever," he said, " and everything 
invites to it, there should be a movement towards re- 
union among the Christian bodies it seems likely that 
the Church of England should be the one to give it 
impulse. Presbyterianism, as its French nature ren- 
dered probable, went to extremes. Between us and 
those who practice a worship which we think wanting 
in form and substance there is too wide an interval; 
we cannot understand one another. But the English 
Church, which touches us with the one hand, touches 
with the other those with whom we have no point of 
contact. She is like one of those chemical re-agents 
which unite elements incapable, in their own nature, 
of reunion. ,, 

These words point to a truth the full meaning of 
which is only now becoming clear. We have been 
disposed to think, somewhat complacently, of the 
Anglican Church as adhering closely to primitive Faith 
and Order, and holding the middle ground upon which 
extremes on either hand would some day have to meet. 
But it is time for us to realize that unity will never 
come, and should never come, by any mere path of 
compromise, and that the mission of the Anglican 
Communion is one vastly greater, much more difficult, 



88 THE CALL TO UNITY 

far more noble than this. Christendom stands di- 
vided into two great groups, Catholic and Protestant. 
What we need now to see, and what Christians are at 
last beginning to see, is that the central, pivotal prin- 
ciples witnessed to and emphasized by these two great 
separated groups are not as fundamentally opposed 
one to another as they have been assumed to be. 

We are coming to see that at any rate in their 
beginnings the divisions among Christians which have 
lasted for centuries, and which have worked such 
untold harm to the cause of Christ, were due more 
to human passion and prejudice, to controversial bit- 
terness, to the intolerant spirit of the time in which 
they took place, than to any actually irreconcilable 
differences between the opposed positions. 

If this is the fact it throws a most hopeful light 
along the path towards unity. And study of the ques- 
tions at issue shows that this is the fact. The divi- 
sions have been due in most cases not to essential in- 
compatibility in the different principles, but rather to 
a kind of intellectual pride which has refused to allow 
place for any apprehension of the truth but its own, 
assuming that its own apprehension had taken in the 
whole of the truth. It is the simple fact that if there 
had been a reasonable spirit, a temper of conciliation, 
a desire on both sides to see the truth without preju- 
dice, the divisions between Catholics and Protestants 
need never have taken place. There was nothing in 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 89 

the contending principles which necessitated this. It 
was not that one of these principles was true and that 
the other was false. Each principle was in essence 
equally true, and each was needed for the balance and 
completeness of the other. This cannot of course be 
said of all the differences in detail, nor of all the issues 
and questions which have since developed. Division 
has developed further difference, and separateness has 
borne its unwholesome fruit. But if it can now be 
seen, and acknowledged, that there was no real neces- 
sity for division in the beginning, that the questions at 
issue did not require this, that the main principles 
held by both sides are true and necessary, this at least 
points the way towards reconciliation, it opens a real 
door of hope, it establishes a foundation upon which 
a true unity may be brought about. 

What are the fundamental ideas and principles for 
which the words Catholic and Protestant respectively 
stood, and for which they still stand? The funda- 
mental question at issue between the Catholic and 
Protestant positions is not confined to the sphere of reli- 
gion. It is one which runs through the whole of life. 
It is the question of the relation of the individual to 
society as to the whole of which he is a part. It is 
this question which is at the root of all our human 
problems, social, political, industrial, economic or 
philosophic. It is only natural that this question 
should have its place in the life of the Church. The 



90 THE CALL TO UNITY 

word Catholic means literally that which is " accord- 
ing to the whole." It connotes not only the universal 
but the corporate, that which relates to the wholeness 
and the oneness of life. Essentially the word Cath- 
olic stands for authority, unity, universality, for the 
social and corporate expression of Christian truth and 
life, for emphasis on the Divine claims and the Divine 
side of religion. And this principle for which the 
word Catholic stands is true, and essential to Chris- 
tian faith and life. The word Protestant means lit- 
erally " witnessing.'' It connotes personal witness to 
truth, individually experienced. Essentially the word 
Protestant stands for personal freedom, for individual 
responsibility, for the direct access of the human soul 
to God, for the dignity and sacredness of the spirit of 
man, for emphasis on individual development and on 
the human side of religion. And this principle for 
which the word Protestant stands is also true, and es- 
sential to Christian faith and life. Not only is each 
of these great principles true but each is of the very 
life of the Gospel. Each had its place in the begin- 
ning, has its place now, and must have its place for- 
ever in the life of the Church. Each is a part of the 
faith once for all delivered to the saints. St. Paul 
stood for each of these principles with equal clearness 
and fullness. He is claimed as confidently, and as 
rightly, by the champions of the Protestant principle 
as he is by the champions of the Catholic principle. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 91 

Each principle is liable to exaggeration and undue 
emphasis, and each has indeed often been exaggerated 
and unduly emphasized. Each principle needs the 
other to correct and supplement it. Neither principle 
has in fact been exclusively the possession of either 
group. All along each group has, in greater or less 
degree, recognized the truth emphasized by the other. 

What we need now in our approach towards unity 
is not some compromise upon a middle ground be- 
tween the fundamental principle of Protestantism and 
the fundamental principle of Catholicism, but full rec- 
ognition by each group of the truth, the importance, 
the indispensability of the principle for which the 
other stands. 

It is here that the Anglican Communion has to-day 
its great opportunity. The position which the Angli- 
can Church holds is not a mere via media, a middle 
path of compromise cautiously taken to escape ex- 
tremes. The Anglican Church does not hold some 
nondescript position midway between the opposed 
Catholic and Protestant principles. She touches each 
of these on either hand, as de Maistre expressed 
it, because she recognizes and finds place for both the 
Catholic principle and the Protestant principle within 
her own life. She shows in actual fact that these two 
principles are not mutually exclusive and contradictory. 
She is both Catholic and Protestant. 

The Anglican Communion includes these two posi- 



92 THE CALL TO UNITY 

tions within her fold as no other Communion on earth 
does. She is the one Communion in the world in which 
those who represent the Catholic position, and those 
who represent the Protestant position, now live and 
work together, in fellowship and unity. It is this 
which gives her the special mission to which she is 
called. Her mission is to lead towards unity by show- 
ing, still more clearly than she has yet done, that 
these apparently opposed principles are not incom- 
patible but that each finds larger and fuller life by 
association with the other. It may be that until we 
are ready for reunion it is best for each group of 
Christians to continue its present limiting denomina- 
tional name, if only as a reminder of its condition of 
separation and exile from the full life of the Catholic 
Church. If, however, the Protestant Episcopal 
Church should wish to change its name the most 
strictly accurate, the most truly significant and the 
most historically correct designation for it would be, 
as Dr. Miel told us, the " Catholic Protestant " or 
the " Protestant Catholic " Church. The Anglican 
Church claims no credit for the fact that this is her 
position. She did not take it of her own wisdom, nor 
of her own ordering. She has not fully realized its 
meaning, nor the high mission which it gives her. 
She has in large degree accepted this position as of 
necessity, under compulsion, and has regarded it often 
as a burden grievous to be borne, involving her in 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 93 

weakness and self-contradiction. Some of her chil- 
dren, on each of the opposing sides, have cried out 
against it, a few have even fled from her fold in fear 
of it, or in failure to understand it. But she is now 
called to see the true meaning of her opportunity and 
to put it to full use in the cause of unity. We have 
been in the habit of lamenting the break between the 
English and the Roman Churches, at the time of the 
Reformation. Evil, however, as were some of the 
circumstances, and some of the consequences, of this 
estrangement between sister Churches we can see, 
more clearly than our forefathers did, that it was of 
providential ordering. Like Joseph, banished into 
Egypt, we can now see the Divine purpose in this, and 
can say, as he did on his reunion with his brethren, 
" God meant it unto good." As a result of her life 
history, and of the experience through which she has 
passed, the Anglican Church has been prepared for 
the work of reconciliation, she is able not only to under- 
stand but, still more important, to feel, in some meas- 
ure, the religious value and significance, of the truths 
emphasized, respectively, by Eastern Orthodox, Roman 
Catholic and Protestant Christianity. 

The chief differences of belief which separate Cath- 
olics from Protestants are those which relate to the 
nature of the Church, the Sacraments and the Minis- 
try. These questions are indeed of great moment. 
None of us could wish that they should be lightly re- 



94 THE CALL TO UNITY 

garded, or that their importance should be under- 
estimated. Even for the sake of unity the truth in- 
volved in these questions could not be sacrificed. 
These are not external questions. They touch the 
very life of the Gospel. The different views are held 
by the two great sections of Christendom with deepest 
and most serious conviction. But recognizing the 
seriousness of the questions, are the differences of be- 
lief about them, such as must permanently separate 
Christians from one another ?' Are the different views 
fundamentally opposed, and irreconcilable, or is it 
true that, in these vital matters each side is contending 
for something that is indispensable; that each side is 
in the main right in what it affirms, and wrong chiefly 
in what it denies; that the way to unity is not by re- 
jection of either belief, but by acceptance and recogni- 
tion of each as part, and a necessary part, of the higher 
truth which includes them both? If this is the fact 
then no doubt the Kingdom of God is not far from 
us. If we can see that we are not divided by funda- 
mental principle, we may hope that other difficulties, 
serious though these may be, can in time be overcome. 
Catholics and Protestants appear to hold widely dif- 
fering views as to the Church. But is the difference 
here so great as appears on the surface? Every 
Christian, of whatever name, in his heart thinks of 
the Church as differing from any other organization 
on earth, as having some supernatural character, as 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 95 

speaking and witnessing and ministering in the name 
of God. Every Christian regards the Church as some- 
thing more than a social club or an educational agency. 
The Catholic feels and stresses the Divine character 
of the Church. He stands for the principle of au- 
thority, of continuity, of order, for the importance 
and necessity of corporate faith and life. He em- 
phasizes the fact that fellowship in the Church is nec- 
essary to spiritual life and development. The Prot- 
estant, on the other hand, feels and stresses the im- 
portance and Divine character of the individual soul. 
He stands for the principle of liberty, of spontaneity, 
of full individual expression. He stands for the 
fact that spiritual development is possible only 
through personal faith and individual experience. 
But there is nothing in these two principles that is in- 
compatible. So far from being mutually exclusive or 
destructive they are vitally necessary to each other. 
Every thoughtful Protestant and every thoughtful 
Catholic does in fact hold both principles in some de- 
gree. All must agree that corporate religion and in- 
dividual religion are equally necessary, and that only 
in the corporate life of the Church can the individual 
Christian find his full life and development. With 
all their differences all Catholics and almost all Prot- 
estants in their fundamental conception of the Church 
are at one. They believe alike that the Church is 
Christ's Body and that it includes all who share the 



g6 THE CALL TO UNITY 

life that is received from Him. They believe alike 
that the Church is a Divine institution. In the words 
of an eminent representative of the Congregational 
Church, " Every Christian, in his soul, be he rational- 
ist or sacramentarian, evangelical or sacerdotalist, 
Protestant or Catholic, cherishes a supernatural idea 
of the Church, looks upon it as the Bride of Christ, 
the supreme object of His love, the Body of Christ, 
the very incorporation of His Spirit, the Heavenly 
City, the New Jerusalem, the Communion of Saints. " * 
Between those who together hold such a conception of 
the Church as this surely no impassable gulf is fixed! 
In our discussions of Christian Unity it is of the 
utmost importance to take the questions for considera- 
tion in their proper order. If we and our brethren of 
the Nonconformist Churches should begin by discuss- 
ing the Ministry and the question of a valid ordi- 
nation, we should probably halt there indefinitely. 
One of the chief hindrances to progress has been that 
this question, important as it is, has been considered 
out of its due relation to the deeper question of the 
meaning and nature of the Christian Church. If we 
find ourselves fundamentally at one in our conception 
of the Church, we can then approach subsidiary ques- 
tions with far more hope of agreement. As Canon 
Goudge well puts it, " We should begin with the 

1 Revd. Raymond Calkins, in Approaches Towards Church 
Unity, by Newman Smyth and Williston Walker, p. 85. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION gj 

Church, and that brotherhood, one with another, 
which our common membership bestows. The his- 
torical problems as to the origin and character of the 
Christian ministry are a Serbonian bog, out of which 
we should keep as long as possible. Let anybody 
read, in any order which he prefers, Dr. Gore's The 
Church and the Ministry, Dr. Lindsay's The Church 
and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, and Mr. 
Lowrie's The Church and its Organization, to take 
but three books out of very many, and then endeavor 
to balance the arguments, and put down the conclu- 
sions which have clearly emerged. ... It is highly 
important to keep the question of the ministry in its 
place. Broadly speaking, the Church does not so 
much depend upon the ministry as the ministry upon 
the Church. The Church is not the Church because 
it has a ' valid ministry ' ; rather the ministry is valid 
because it is the ministry of the Church." x 

With regard to the Ministry, the Protestant em- 
phasizes those elements of the office which are dis- 
tinctive of the prophet, the Catholic emphasizes those 
elements of the office which are distinctive of the 
priest. It must be admitted that Catholics have been 
suspicious of the liberty of prophesying, and that Prot- 
estants have been prejudiced against the idea of the 
priesthood. But why should it be so? Why should 
either of these ideas of the Ministry be regarded as 

1 The Catholic Party and the Nonconformists, p. 10. 



98 THE CALL TO UNITY 

denying or excluding the other? Catholic and Prot- 
estant, in fact, do recognize, in some measure, the ne- 
cessity of both priest and prophet. The Christian Re- 
ligion calls for the exercise of each of these func- 
tions of the Ministry. The exercise of each function 
is demanded by the facts and needs of human life. 
What we need, and must have, in the Ministry of the 
Church is not priest or prophet, but priest and prophet, 
with full recognition of the place and need of each. 
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the perfect exam- 
ple of both. It is sometimes said that according to 
the Catholic theory the minister receives his authority 
from above, while according to the Protestant theory 
he receives his authority from below. But this is not 
a statement which does full justice to the respective 
positions. The difference of view is not as to whether 
the authority and power of the minister come from 
above or from below, but rather as to the means by 
which these are conveyed and assured and as to how 
the ministerial commission shall be outwardly authen- 
ticated. Whether the prophetic, or the priestly, as- 
pect of the Ministry is emphasized; whether it is 
held that the power to exercise its functions is con- 
veyed and assured through an outward and visible 
ministerial succession, or whether it is held that it is 
given without this outward means and assurance, each 
side holds equally that both the call to the Ministry, 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 99 

and the power to exercise it, are from God. Catholic 
and Protestant alike believe that the Ministry speaks, 
and ministers, with authority from above. According 
to each view the primary qualification for the work 
of the Ministry is the call of God the Spirit, and the 
power which He alone can bestow. The Protestant, 
it is true, stresses the fact that the minister exercises 
his functions as representing, and on behalf of, the 
people. But a true Catholic doctrine holds firmly the 
representative character of the priesthood, and teaches 
that the priest's office exists only by virtue of that 
priesthood of all believers, of which it is the organ. 
Dr. R. C. Moberly says : " The Christian Ministry is 
not a substituted intermediary — still less an atoning 
mediator — between God and lay people ; but it is 
rather the representative and organ of the whole body, 
in the exercise of prerogatives and powers which be- 
long to the body as a whole/ ' * As Bishop Gore ex- 
presses it, quoting, in part, Canon Liddon, " The dif- 
ference between clergy and laity is not a difference in 
kind, but in f unction/ ' 2 

The Catholic emphasizes the necessity of a regular 
form of appointment and commission to the Ministry, 
he believes in the principle of continuity and succes- 
sion as the sign of power given from above and the 

1 Ministerial Priesthood, p. 242. 

2 The Church and the Ministry, p. 84. 



IOO THE CALL TO UNITY 

means through which this is outwardly assured, and 
holds that Episcopal ordination is essential for the ex- 
ercise of the priestly office. 

The Protestant emphasizes the necessity of the in- 
ward and spiritual gift proved by manifestation of 
the fruits of the Spirit in life and work and holds 
that the form by which the Commission is given is 
not essential. But wide as are the differences between 
these two positions it is not impossible for them to 
dwell together in unity. Christians holding these dif- 
ferent views can dwell in fellowship in the one house- 
hold and they do, in fact, so dwell in the Anglican 
Communion. It is fuller realization of the sacramental 
truth of the Church itself as the Body of Christ which 
will bring us to fuller and deeper views of the Church's 
Ministry. 

Strongly, and rightly, as we may believe in the 
necessity of a regular outward form of appointment 
to the Ministry, and in the principle of ministerial 
succession, we must all of us be willing to leave place 
for the free working of the Spirit of God. Recog- 
nizing to the full that God works in His Church, as 
elsewhere, normally according to a regular order, we 
must also recognize, with equal fullness, that God 
has power to work outside His established order. 
And in this matter of the Ministry we must recognize 
that God has, in fact, chosen so to work. We must 
acknowledge, and rejoice in, the presence and power 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IOI 

of the Spirit wherever, and by whatever means, it may- 
be manifested. That it is necessary for those called 
to the Ministry to receive the power of the Spirit for 
their work all agree. Practically all Christians rec- 
ognize the necessity for some regular form of ordi- 
nation, and by almost all this is given by the laying 
of hands. 

The point to be made clear is this. The Ministry of 
each Christian denomination must be recognized as a 
true ministry. Its spiritual reality, and efficacy, are 
proved by its power to bring men to Christ. But it is 
in each case the Ministry of a particular Communion, 
holding the commission only of that Communion, and 
not of the whole Church. All may recognize that for 
the exercise of the Ministry in the whole Church it is 
necessary to have the commission of the whole Church. 
And the commission which has by far the largest sanc- 
tion, and use, is that given through the historic Episco- 
pate. This was the commission of the whole Church in 
the past. It is the one accepted by much the larger part 
of Christendom at the present time. It is manifest 
that this must be the commission for the exercise of 
the Ministry of the whole Church in the future. 
What is now needed is that the Non-Episcopal Minis- 
tries shall be recognized to be true Ministries, ac- 
cepted and used by the Spirit for the work of Christ 
and that, on the other hand, these Ministries shall accept 
the Episcopate as giving them the commission requisite 



I02 THE CALL TO UNITY 

for ministry in the Church Universal. And wider 
scholarship seems at last to be opening the way for this. 
A scholar of the Anglican Church, so representative 
of the Catholic school as the Revd. C. H. Turner 
writes an essay of which a representative Congrega- 
tionalist scholar, the Revd. Alfred E. Garvie, Princi- 
pal of New College, Hampstead, says that it " must 
have brought relief to others, as to myself, who care 
for the lessening of the difficulties in the way of Chris- 
tian reunion. As here presented the Apostolic Suc- 
cession does not appear an insuperable obstacle. ,, Dr. 
Garvie adds : " To give to the bishops the place they 
have hitherto held in respect of the ordination of min- 
isters, so long as, in accordance with ancient practice, 
other presbyters are associated with them, would be 
simply to preserve the continuity in the Christian 
Church which anyone with a proper historic sense 
would desire. This, however, must not be held to in- 
volve any theory of the exclusive validity of episcopal 
ordination/' * And the Anglican and Free Church 
authors of that remarkable statement already referred 
to, the " Second Interim Report," say, " The first fact 
which we agree to acknowledge is that the position of 
Episcopacy in the greater part of Christendom, as the 
recognized organ of the unity and continuity of the 
Church, is such that the members of the Episcopal 
Churches ought not to be expected to abandon it in 

1 See essay by the Revd. A, E. Garvie in Towards Reunion, 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IO3 

assenting to any basis of reunion." These representa- 
tive scholars go on to submit for consideration, as 
what seem to them " necessary conditions of any pos- 
sibility of reunion " that " continuity with the his- 
toric Episcopate should be effectively preserved " ; 
that " the Episcopate should reassume a constitutional 
form . . . such as was the primitive ideal and prac- 
tice " and such as it has " in many Episcopal Com- 
munions to-day " ; that " acceptance of the fact of 
Episcopacy, and not any theory as to its character 
should be all that is asked for/' which, they hold 
" may be the more easily taken for granted as the ac- 
ceptance of any such theory is not now required of 
the ministers of the Church of England." And they 
add, " Within such a recovered unity we should agree 
in claiming that the legitimate freedom of prophetic 
ministry should be carefully preserved, and in antici- 
pating that many customs and institutions which have 
been developed in separate communities may be pre- 
served within the larger unity of which they have come 
to form a part." 

The whole of this report, which may be found 
in the appendix to this volume, shows striking ad- 
vance towards mutual understanding and a most gen- 
erous spirit and earnest desire for unity on the part 
of its Free Church signers. It may be that the way to 
reunion would be made easier if those who have re- 
ceived their orders through the historic Episcopate 



104 THE CALL TO UNITY 

should on their part express willingness to receive from 
the authorities of the Non-Episcopal Communions such 
added and special authorization as they might desire 
to give. This would of course not be reordination. 
This term suggests repudiation of, or reflection upon, 
the Ministry previously exercised and it should there- 
fore not be used on either side. So undoubted an 
advocate of the Catholic view of the Ministry as the 
Bishop of Zanzibar has suggested this course. In pre- 
senting his plan for the union of the Churches in East 
Africa he " assured the Conference that if the Non- 
Episcopal bodies would accept some such proposals 
as these, and consent to some Episcopal consecration 
and ordination so as to enable them to minister, by 
invitation, in Episcopal Churches, he for his part 
would gladly come before any of their congregations 
and accept any form of popular recognition. He 
could not move from his own position, or allow doubt 
to be cast upon his ministerial authority received by 
ordination and consecration. But if the Church's 
forms were held to be weak on the side of popular 
recognition he would not refuse whatever the other 
bodies thought to be necessary to make his ministry 
among them acceptable. This he could do in good 
faith, since our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires a 
United Church, knows the thoughts and motives of 
our hearts." * 

1 See Appendix, p. 143. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IO5 

In regard to worship the Catholic position is asso- 
ciated chiefly with the use of liturgical forms, classic 
in themselves, hallowed by use and association, com- 
ing down, some of them, from the earliest ages of 
the Christian Church. The Protestant position is as- 
sociated chiefly with nonliturgical methods, with the 
free, unprescribed utterance of the spirit in prayer 
and worship. But as urged in the preceding lecture, 
why should this question of the method of worship 
cause separation, or division among us? Neither of 
these methods is contrary to the principles of the Gos- 
pel. Each has its value, and its place. Each may 
well be used in the life of the Church. The differing 
views as to forms of worship, use of ritual and, far 
more important, as to the place and nature of the 
Sacraments, rest back upon different philosophies of 
the relation between matter and spirit. Philosophy 
itself seems now to recognize the reality of both mat- 
ter and spirit, that spirit is the underlying reality upon 
which matter depends, and that matter can be, and is, 
the medium of the spiritual. Those who hold the 
Sacramental principle, however, find their warrant for 
it not in any human philosophy, but in the Christian 
Gospel, which teaches us that all life is holy, and that 
the body also is to have its place in the redemption. 
This principle has its supreme and all sufficient exem- 
plification in the fact of the Incarnation, the fact, upon 
which Christianity wholly rests, that God Himself 



106 THE CALL TO UNITY 

was manifested to us in human form, that " the 
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." In 
this fact historic Christianity has found the Divine 
authority for the Sacramental principle ; for the Sacra- 
ments as real channels of the Divine and spiritual; 
and also for the offering of true spiritual worship 
through liturgy and ritual. Although liturgical wor- 
ship has its own acknowledged dangers, its great value 
and importance in the life of the Church are clear. 
With striking open-mindedness the authors of Path- 
ways to Christian Unity say, " Christian worship, just 
because it is the worship of the one true God through 
His complete self -manifestation in our Lord, ought 
never to be devoid of, nay rather should always be 
conspicuous for, the reverence with which it is ren- 
dered. It is not too much to say that in this matter 
the average Free Church service of public worship falls 
gravely short of the standard set by Catholic prac- 
tice . . . our Free Church worship too frequently 
lacks in reverence, and tends to substitute other things 
for the spirit of worship. An ornate liturgical service 
may be, and doubtless often is, irreverent, and there 
is such a thing as a drilled reverence which is not wor- 
shipful. Nevertheless it is undeniably more difficult 
to dissociate the spirit of reverence from a Catholic 
office, or from the Anglican Liturgy, than from our 
Free Church Services," 1 

1 Page 114. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IO7 

As that true soldier of the Spirit, Donald Hankey, 
expressed it : " We must be quite clear about the object 
of an ordained priesthood and a uniform service. 
The English Church always has its eye on the future 
and on the possibility of a universal Church. Sup- 
posing such a Church to exist, it would be almost es- 
sential that Christians should be able in every part of 
the world to take part in the great service of Catholic 
fellowship, the service of Holy Communion. It is a 
beautiful idea that wherever a Christian should go in 
all the world, and in whatever strange language his 
brothers in Christ might be worshipping, he should 
always be able to follow this one service, and find it 
the same everywhere. After all, Holy Communion, 
enshrining as it does the essence of our faith, is the 
obvious basis of unity. And there seems to be no 
good reason why as we all come to understand its 
meaning more fully there should not in this one thing 
be uniformity. Therefore, the English Church has 
tried, as far as possible, to keep to the old form of 
service in which, from very ancient times, the rite of 
the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup 
has been set. Besides this, the set form of service 
and the specially ordained ministry are a certain guar- 
antee that the meaning and beauty of the service will 
not be lost. If it were to be celebrated anyhow, and 
by anybody, there would be grave danger that false 
interpretations might creep in, and important features 



IC8 THE CALL TO UNITY 

allowed to drop out. In this matter we think that the 
Church of England would not serve the cause of ulti- 
mate catholicity by sacrificing what seems to be beauti- 
ful and useful for the sake of an immediate unity 
which would mean the impoverishment of the future. 
Not by giving up what is beautiful and good but by 
including more of what is beautiful and good, will the 
Church of England substantiate its claim to be Cath- 
olic." x 

The principle that the outward and visible has its 
proper place in religion, as in all life, is indeed all but 
universally accepted. But it must equally be recog- 
nized that as to the particular form in which worship 
shall be offered, and as to the use of ritual, very wide 
liberty must be conceded. Liturgical forms have 
great value but it does not therefore follow that there 
is no place in public worship for free prayer. Pre- 
cious as the Book of Common Prayer is to Anglicans, 
noble as it is, both in spirit and in utterance, it is not 
the only, nor the final, word in worship. It does not 
meet and cover all the spiritual needs of men of all 
kinds, on all occasions, and under all conditions. The 
time has come for the Anglican Church to become less 
rigid, far more truly Catholic, in her system of wor- 
ship. Without losing the dignity and order of her 
stated services she must not only allow, she must en- 
courage greater variety and freedom of devotion. If 

1 The Lord of All Good Life, pp. 124, 125. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IO9 

precedent be required for this it can be found amply 
in the great variety of ritual, and service books, in 
earlier days in the Church of England. Catholicism 
emphasizes the sacramental idea of worship; Protes- 
tantism emphasizes the inspirational idea of worship. 
The thing needed for the life of the Church is that 
each of these ideas shall have its place and expression. 
And yet this question of the method of worship has 
occasioned division in the Body of Christ, and Chris- 
tians are to-day, more divided in feeling by it than 
might be supposed. 

The trouble is that these different types of worship 
have in the main, dwelt apart from each other, in sep- 
arated denominations. It is this fact which makes 
Christian people critical and suspicious of the method 
with which they are not familiar. If each method had 
place, and use, within the one Church the feeling that 
they are opposed one to another would largely dis- 
appear. In the United Church the principle must be 
not to repress but to combine and develop every 
variety of religious expression which is in accord with 
the Faith of Christ. It is this principle which the 
Anglican Church is now called upon more fully to ex- 
emplify. 

With regard to the Sacraments, Catholics and Prot- 
estants will find their common ground by emphasis 
upon the fact that the primary thing in these ordi- 
nances is not what we do, or feel, but what Christ 



IIO THE CALL TO UNITY 

does, and gives us, in and through them. A right 
view of the Sacraments must depend upon, and have 
as its foundation, a full faith in the living Christ. 
For all Christians, Catholics and Protestants, the es- 
sential, all important fact is that Christianity is the 
living Christ Himself, showing us the truth, giving 
us grace and life from above, and doing this normally, 
and certainly, though we may not say exclusively, 
through the Church and the Sacraments, which He 
Himself instituted. Christ is infinitely greater than 
any of our thoughts and feelings about Him. This 
is the foundation fact. This is the rock on which the 
whole life of the Church rests. Standing together in 
this faith we may gladly allow each other wide di- 
versity of apprehension, and interpretation. In the 
words of one whom his pupils, and many others, 
think of as the most profound and illuminating of 
modern teachers of Christian truth, the late Dr. Du- 
Bose, " What we need in our Christianity is to take 
God at His Word, to believe that what He says 
to us Christ is. It is as much a part of Christianity 
to know that Christ is in His Church, as it is to know 
that God is in Christ. If we truly believed that the 
Church is Christ's Body, the actual and sole organ and 
instrument of His life and work upon earth; if we 
truly knew that we are members of His body, par- 
takers of His life, and doers of all that He is in the 
world to do; if Baptism were to our faith the death 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION III 

and life of Christ, and the Bread and Wine were His 
Body and Blood, instead of only signs of something 
not there, how would the Gospel begin to manifest it- 
self as that which in itself it is — as that which but 
for us it would be — the Power of God unto salva- 
tion, because a Righteousness of God in us through 
Faith. With all our mutual understandings and 
agreements, there will always be certain differences 
among us, because of certain inevitable liabilities and 
dangers equally to be found on opposite sides of the 
above truth of the Church. Some will always be 
thinking that others are making too much of the out- 
ward and visible for the proper emphasis and opera- 
tion of the inward and spiritual. The others will be 
equally sure that these are making too much of their 
own subjective states and selves, and denying, or ig- 
noring, the objective divine presence and grace upon 
which the internal state is and ought to be directly 
conditioned. Are not these two opposite attitudes 
both necessary and wholesome offsets, and does not 
the truth and life of Christianity depend upon its abil- 
ity to meet, and compose such differences ? " 1 

The crucial question in regard to unity is common 
participation in the Sacrament of Christ's Body and 
Blood. The Lord's Supper is the Sacrament of unity. 

1 " A Constructive Treatment of Christianity," by William 
Porcher DuBose, The Constructive Quarterly, March, 1913, 
p. 21. 



112 THE CALL TO UNITY 

It is the center of the Church's life and worship, the 
outward sign, and the means, of our fellowship with 
Christ, and with one another in Him. There can be 
no true realization of unity until those who are one in 
Christ can express their fellowship outwardly and vis- 
ibly in the ordinance of His own appointment. It is 
for this above all things that we long and pray, for 
nothing less than this will restore the broken tinity 
of Christ's Church. It is here that the fellowship of 
Christians must be visibly manifested. 

Dr. Newman Smyth truly says: " While the Lord's 
Supper is the very center and hearth of the whole 
household of faith, around it have gathered the most 
irreconcilable differences of the Churches. Reunion 
therefore must go to the very core of the disunion. 
So long as non-communion between Churches is vis- 
ible, real unity is invisible. And belief in the one- 
ness of the invisible Church does not atone for the 
sinful estate of visible disunity. Agreements to work 
together outside the churches leave Christ to be found 
walking the streets among men, but not seen in the 
midst of His own disciples. External federation in 
working together, however desirable, may hide, but 
does not atone for, not living together in the one fam- 
ily and Church of God. The visibility of the real 
home life, — not of co-workers only in the same field 
— that is the real unity of the Church." 2 

1 Approaches Towards Church Unity, p. 56. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION II3 

But between those who hold the Protestant position 
and those who hold the Catholic position there are 
important differences of belief as to the meaning of this 
Sacrament. Is it possible for those who by tempera- 
ment and conviction hold one of these positions to 
kneel at the Lord's Supper in fellowship of faith, in 
unity of mind and spirit with those who by tempera- 
ment and conviction hold the other position? In 
spite of their deep differences of apprehension have 
those who hold the Protestant and Catholic beliefs 
enough in common to justify them in coming together 
in this Sacrament to meet their common Lord ? Here 
we must tread reverently for the place on which we 
stand is holy ground. Because this is the holy of 
holies, the very sanctuary of the Church's life, there 
must here be no undue haste. Common participation 
in this Sacrament is the achievement of unity, its 
realization and full manifestation to the world. This 
is the prize for which we are striving. And because 
it is the prize we must not claim it, until it has been 
won. This does not say that baptized Christians of 
other Communions may never be permitted under ex- 
isting conditions to receive the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper at an Anglican Altar. Few would be 
found to maintain this position in practice. But inter- 
communion between the divided Churches must wait 
until the way is prepared and ready for it. Inter- 
communion is the end and climax of our progress to- 



114 THE CALL TO UNITY 

wards unity, not its beginning. Writing from the 
point of view of a Congregationalist, Dr. Raymond 
Calkins says : " A common communion, before we 
have acquired the spirit of union or the spiritual per- 
ception of the total truth which makes us one, can 
hardly hasten, but may seriously retard our progress/ ' 1 

As to the question, however, whether Protestants 
and Catholics can find the way to common participation 
in this Sacrament is not the answer suggested by the 
actual situation which we have in the Anglican Church ? 
Within her fold both the Protestant belief and the 
Catholic belief are in large degree represented and 
held. Yet all approach the Altar in simple dependence 
upon Christ's word. All are able to use the great, 
but sober words of the Prayer Book Office. All be- 
lieve that in this Sacrament grace is given, and that 
faith is necessary for its right reception. All believe 
that there the Bread which cometh down from Heaven 
is received. All hold that there the one Sacrifice once 
for all offered on Calvary is kept in remembrance and 
shown forth before God and men. All believe that 
there they are in the presence of the living Christ. 
Why shall not the way be found for Christians of all 
names to come together to this Sacrament in like 
unity of simple faith? 

In order that the Church may be reunited we must 
have Catholicism larger, nobler, truer than any that 

1 Approaches Towards Church Unity, p. 82. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 115 

has yet been attained; a Catholicism larger, not be- 
cause it has cut loose from the Gospel, but because it 
has entered more deeply into the Gospel ; a Catholicism 
which is in vital organic relation with the past, but 
which includes also the spiritual contributions of this 
age, and of every age since the first days. Those 
who are most concerned for the integrity of the Faith 
should most welcome such comprehension. It is in 
such an atmosphere that the Truth will flourish and 
find fullest expression. We must have no faithless 
fear for the Gospel of Christ and His Church. In the 
atmosphere of brotherliness, mutual sympathy, and 
freedom we need not fear that truth will suffer. The 
Catholicism which we now need must be loyal to the 
Faith once for all revealed, but it must believe also in 
progress as the very condition of its life, it must re- 
joice in the new as well as in the old; it must have 
care for, and sympathy with, all that can bring strength 
and cheer to the lives of men. It must not look 
backward to a golden age in the past but must bring 
all the treasures of the past to the service of the pres- 
ent and the future. It must be at once conservative 
and progressive, careful to preserve the true founda- 
tions of spiritual life, and eager to build boldly and 
nobly upon them. Those who catch its spirit must 
have about them the air, not of repression and sub- 
jection, but of freedom and adventure, as those who, 
living in the Father's household, enjoy the glorious 



Il6 THE CALL TO UNITY 

liberty of the children of God. Our lives in the 
Church are not to be timid, and cautious, and con- 
strained but brave and enterprising and free for " God 
hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and 
of love, and of a sound mind." 1 

We must keep in mind the variety and freedom, the 
life and vigor, the startling innovations, the fearless 
grappling with new situations as well as the whole- 
hearted loyalty and faith in Christ which we see in 
the picture of the Church shown to us in St. Paul's 
Epistles. 

We do grave wrong to Jesus Christ if we allow our- 
selves to think of, or to present, His religion as a 
backward looking religion. The cry " Back to 
Christ " contains truth, but it is only a part of the 
truth. Our watchword must be not merely " Back 
to Christ " but " Forward with Christ, and into 
Christ." 

And to the Anglican Communion is given an oppor- 
tunity without parallel to show what the full life of 
the Catholic Church may be. 

More than ever before we who are of her fold are 
called to show that the essential principles to which 
Protestantism bears witness, and the essential princi- 
ples to which Catholicism bears witness can dwell to- 
gether in the one Church of Christ. We must do now 
fully and gladly that which we have been doing half 

1 II Tim. i, 7. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 117 

unwillingly and half fearfully. We must cultivate far 
more the spirit of harmony and unity and mutual con- 
fidence in our own household. We must cease think- 
ing of the Catholic and Protestant elements within our 
Communion as in essential conflict, as though one of 
these is to overthrow and drive out the other. 

We must recognize that each of these positions is 
seeking to express truth native to the Gospel, that each 
corresponds with deep facts in human life, that each 
is needed for the fullness of the Kingdom of God. 
Such an ideal makes great demands upon us. It 
calls for largeness of mind and heart in both clergy 
and people. It requires us indeed to " think magnif- 
icently/' It means that the Anglican Church must be 
far more dominated by the spirit of love and fellow- 
ship than it has ever yet been, but this is exactly what 
is now needed, if the Anglican Church and the Church 
as a whole is to be the effective organ of Christ's power 
and presence in the world. Patience and forbearance 
and open-mindedness are not virtues easy to combine 
with deep conviction. But these are the fruits which 
the discipline of our common life in the Church, the 
family of Christ, is intended to produce in us. As one 
especially qualified to speak on this subject points out, 
the trouble has been not that the Anglican Church in- 
cluded both the Catholic and Protestant principles, but 
that she did not carry out this principle far enough. 
" She followed each too feebly and inconsistently to get 



Il8 THE CALL TO UNITY 

its best out of it and yet sufficiently for to prevent her 
getting the best out of its fellow." * 

If the Anglican Church will now follow out to their 
full implications the principles embodied in her formu- 
laries she may play a great part in the reunion of 
Christendom. Approach towards Rome at this time 
is not possible. But reunion between the Anglican 
and the Eastern Churches seems to be near at hand. 
And there is to-day in the Protestant Churches an 
eager, almost passionate, desire for unity. If Angli- 
can, Eastern and Protestant Christianity, or a large 
part of it, could be brought together on a basis of true 
Christian liberty, with loyalty to essential Catholic prin- 
ciple, this should in no way hinder reunion with the Ro- 
man Church, but on the contrary should greatly increase 
its likelihood. It seems probable that there will have to 
be such developments before Rome will seriously con- 
sider reunion. And there rests upon the Anglican 
Church a special obligation to strive for religious unity 
in the English-speaking world. The great Protestant 
Communions are, many of them, her own kith and kin. 
She is bound to them by ties of history, of language, 
and of blood. Some of them went out from her spirit- 
ual household, in part through her own fault and short- 
coming. Unity, like charity, may well begin at home. 
As the ancient Church of the English race, identified 

1 The Church and Religious Unity, by the Revd. Herbert 
Kelly, p. 307. 



THE CALL TO THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION II9 

with all its past, what wonder if God is calling us first 
to seek reconciliation with those who share with us a 
common heritage, and who read the Bible in the Eng- 
lish tongue. The English-speaking peoples are ap- 
pointed to a great common mission. They are called 
to stand and strive together, not for any selfish aims 
or ambitions, but for the good of all mankind. So 
far as human judgment can see, the peace and hope 
of the world depend upon their close unity and 'fel- 
lowship. What greater thing could now be accom- 
plished as a step towards unity than the drawing into 
fellowship of all English-speaking Christians? What 
greater service could the Anglican Church render than 
to lend her full strength to this task? If the English- 
speaking Christians of the world, with the exception, 
unavoidable for the present, of the Roman Catholics, 
should become united this would, of itself, open the 
door to a new coming among us of Jesus Christ, and 
it would be an immeasurable advance towards that 
unity of the whole Christian Church for which we 
must pray and labor without ceasing. 



APPENDIX 

1. The Lambeth Quadrilateral. 

2. Action of the General Convention of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church initiating the movement for a World 
Conference on Faith and Order. 

3. Second Interim Report in connection with the proposed 
World Conference on Faith and Order. 

4. The Bishop of London's Proposals for Reunion be- 
tween the Church of England and the Wesleyan Metho- 
dist Church. 

5. The Bishop of Zanzibar's Proposals for Reunion in East 
Africa. 

6. The Concordat. Proposals for an Approach towards 
Unity prepared by members of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church and of the Congregational Church in the United 
States. 

7. Plan of Union adopted by the American Council on 
Organic Union of Churches of Christ. Philadelphia, 
1920. 

8. The Lambeth Declaration on the Reunion of Christen- 
dom. An Appeal to all Christian People. 



THE LAMBETH QUADRILATERAL 



The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as 
" containing all things necessary to salvation/' and as be- 
ing the rule and ultimate standard of Faith. 

II 

The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the 
Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian 
Faith. 

Ill 

The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself, — 
Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, — ministered with un- 
failing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the ele- 
ments ordained by Him. 

IV 

The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of 
its administration to the varying needs of the nations and 
peoples called of God into the unity of His Church. 



ACTION OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE 
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH INITIAT- 
ING THE MOVEMENT FOR A WORLD CONFER- 
ENCE ON FAITH AND ORDER 

Document No. I Published by the Joint Commission 

At the General Convention of 1910 of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United States of America, held in 
Cincinnati, the following report was presented to the House 
of Clerical and Lay Deputies on October 19, 1910: 

The Joint Committee to which was referred the following 
resolution offered in the House of Deputies by the Rev. 
W. T. Manning, D.D., of New York: 

Resolved, The House of Bishops concurring, That a Joint 
Committee, consisting of seven Bishops, seven Presbyters and 
seven Laymen, be appointed to take under advisement the pro- 
motion by this Church of a Conference following the general 
method of the World Missionary Conference, to be participated 
in by representatives of all Christian bodies throughout the 
world which accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour, 
for the consideration of questions pertaining to the Faith and 
Order of the Church of Christ, and that said Committee, if it 
deem such a Conference feasible, shall report to this Conven- 
tion; 

have considered the same, and submit the following report, 
and recommend the immediate consideration and passage of 
the resolution appended to the report. 

" Your Committee is of one mind. We believe that the 
time has now arrived when representatives of the whole fam- 
ily of Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, may be willing to come 

124 



APPENDIX 125 

together for the consideration of questions of Faith and Or- 
der. We believe, further, that all Christian Communions 
are in accord with us in our desire to lay aside self-will, and 
to put on the mind which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We 
would heed this call of the Spirit of God in all lowliness, 
and with singleness of purpose. We would place ourselves 
by the side of our fellow Christians, looking not only on 
our own things, but also on the things of others, convinced 
that our one hope of mutual understanding is in taking per- 
sonal counsel together in the spirit of love and forbearance. 
It is our conviction that such a Conference for the purpose 
of study and discussion, without power to legislate or to 
adopt resolutions, is the next step toward unity. 

" With grief for our aloofness in the past, and for other 
faults of pride and self-sufficiency, which make for schism; 
with loyalty to the truth as we see it, and with respect for 
the convictions of those who differ from us; holding the be- 
lief that the beginnings of unity are to be found in the clear 
statement and full consideration of those things in which 
we differ, as well as of those things in which we are at one, 
we respectfully submit the following resolution : 

Whereas, There is to-day among all Christian people a 
growing desire for the fulfillment of Our Lord's prayer that 
all His disciples may be one; that the world may believe that 
God has sent Him: 

Resolved, The House of Bishops concurring, That a Joint 
Commission be appointed to bring about a Conference for the 
consideration of questions touching Faith and Order, and that 
all Christian Communions throughout the world which confess 
our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour be asked to unite 
with us in arranging for and conducting such a Conference. 
The Commission shall consist of seven Bishops, appointed by 
the Chairman of the House of Bishops, and seven Presbyters 
and seven Laymen, appointed by the President of the House of 
Deputies, and shall have power to add to its number and to fill 
any vacancies occurring before the next General Convention: 



126 APPENDIX 

George W. Peterkin Charles N. Lathrop 

Boyd Vincent William M. Clark 

Thomas F. Gailor B. Talbot Rogers 

William Lawrence Robert H. Gardiner 

Charles P. Anderson George Wharton Pepper 

Reginald H. Weller Burton Mansfield 

Charles H. Brent Edward P. Bailey 

William T. Manning Francis L. Stetson 

Alexander Mann H. D. W. English 

Beverly E. Warner W. A. Robinson 

John E. Sulger Joint Committee" 

On October 19, 1910, the above resolution was adopted 
unanimously by both the House of Bishops and the House of 
Clerical and Lay Deputies, and the Joint Commission ap- 
pointed. 

The members of the Commission are: 
President: Rt. Rev. Charles P. Anderson, D.D., Bishop of 

Chicago, 1612 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 
Chairman of Executive Committee: Rev. William T. Man- 
ning, D.D., 27 West 25th Street, New York, N. Y. 
Treasurer: George Zabriskie, D.C.L., 49 Wall Street, New 

York, N. Y. 
Secretary: Robert H. Gardiner, Gardiner, Maine. 
Rt. Rev. Boyd Vincent, D.D., Bishop of Southern Ohio, 223 

West 7th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Gailor, D.D., Bishop of Tennessee, 346 

Poplar Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 
Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D.D., Bishop of Vermont, Burlington, 

Vermont. 
Rt. Rev. C. B. Brewster, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut, Hart- 
ford, Connecticut. 
Rt. Rev. R. H. Weller, D.D., Bishop Coadjutor of Fond du 

Lac, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. 
Rt. Rev. C. H. Brent, D.D., Bishop of the Philippine Islands, 

253 Calle Nozaleda, Manila, Philippine Islands. 
Rt. Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., Bishop of New York, Gramercy 

Park, New York, N. Y. 
Rt. Rev. P. M. Rhinelander, Bishop Coadjutor of Pennsylvania, 
12th and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pa. 



APPENDIX 127 

Rev. Alexander Mann, D.D., 

233 Clarendon Street, Boston, Massachusetts. 
Rev. Francis J. Hall, D.D, 

2731 Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 
Rev. B. Talbot Rogers, D.D., 

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. 
Rev. William M. Clark, D.D., 

1008 Park Avenue, Richmond, Virginia. 
Rev. Edward L. Parsons, 

2532 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, California. 
Rev. Henry S. Nash, D.D., 

Phillips Place, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
Rev. A. G. Mortimer, D.D., 

1625 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Seth Low, LL.D., 

30 East 64th Street, New York, N. Y. 
J. Pierpont Morgan, LL.D., 

23 Wall Street, New York, N. Y. 
George Wharton Pepper, LL.D., 

Land Title and Trust Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Samuel Mather, 

Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Francis Lynde Stetson, 

15 Broad Street, New York, N. Y. 
Edward P. Bailey, 

2400 South Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 
George Zabriskie, D.C.L., 

49 Wall Street, New York, N. Y. 
Robert H. Gardiner, 

Gardiner, Maine. 



SECOND INTERIM REPORT 

of a Sub-Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canter- 
bury and York's Committee and by Representatives of 
the English Free Churches' Commissions, in connection 
with the proposed World Conference on Faith and 
Order. 

A Movement has been initiated in America by the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church, which has been widely taken up by 
the Christian Churches in the United States, to prepare for 
a world-wide conference on Faith and Order with the view 
of promoting the visible unity of the Body of Christ on earth. 
In response to an appeal from those who are cooperating in 
America a committee was appointed by the Archbishops of 
Canterbury and York and commissions by the Free Churches 
to promote the same Movement in England. 

This Joint Conference has already issued a First In- 
terim Report prepared by a Joint Sub-Committee, consisting 
of: — (i) A Statement of agreement on matters of Faith; 

(2) A Statement of agreement on matters relating to Orders 

(3) A Statement of differences in relation to matters of 
Order which require further study and discussion. 

In further pursuit of the main purpose the Sub-Committee 
was re-appointed and enlarged. After mature and prolonged 
consideration it is hereby issuing its Second Interim Report 
under the direction of the Conference as a whole, but on 
the understanding that the members of the Sub-committee 
alone are to be held responsible for the substance of the 
document. 

In issuing our Second Interim Report we desire to prevent 
possible misconceptions regarding our intentions. We are 

128 



APPENDIX 129 

engaged, not in formulating any basis of reunion for 
Christendom, but in preparing for the consideration of such 
a basis at the projected Conference on Faith and Order. 
We are exploring the ground in order to discover the ways 
of approach to the questions to be considered that seem most 
promising and hopeful. In our first Report we were not at- 
tempting to draw up a creed for subscription, but desired to 
affirm our agreement upon certain foundation truths as the 
basis of a spiritual and rational creed and life for all man- 
kind in Christ Jesus the Lord. It was a matter of profound 
gratitude to God that we found ourselves so far in agree- 
ment. No less grateful were we that even as regards mat- 
ters relating to Order we were able to hold certain common 
convictions, though in regard to these we were forced to 
recognize differences of interpretation. We felt deeply, how- 
ever, that we could not let the matter rest there ; but that we 
must in conference seek to understand one another better, 
in order to discover if even on the questions on which we 
seemed to differ most we might not come nearer to one an- 
other. 

1. In all our discussions we were guided by two convic- 
tions from which we could not escape, and would not, even 
if we could. 

It is the purpose of our Lord that believers in Him should 
be one visible society, and this unity is essential to the pur- 
pose of Christ for His Church and for its effective witness 
and work in the world. The conflict among Christian na- 
tions has brought home to us with a greater poignancy the 
disastrous results of the divisions which prevail among 
Christians, inasmuch as they have hindered that growth of 
mutual understanding which it should be the function of the 
Church to foster, and because a Church which is itself di- 
vided cannot speak effectively to a divided world. 

The visible unity of believers which answers to our Lord's 
purpose must have its source and sanction, not in any human 



I30 APPENDIX 

arrangements, but in the will of the One Father, manifested 
in the Son, and effected through the operation of the Spirit ; 
and it must express and maintain the fellowship of His 
people with one another in Him. Thus the visible unity of 
the Body of Christ is not adequately expressed in the co- 
operation of the Christian Churches for moral influence and 
social service, though such cooperation might with great 
advantage be carried much further than it is at present; it 
could only be fully realized through community of worship, 
faith and order, including common participation in the Lord's 
Supper. This would be quite compatible with a rich diversity 
in life and worship. 

2. In suggesting the conditions under which this visible 
unity might be realized we desire to set aside for the present 
the abstract discussion of the origin of the Episcopate his- 
torically, or its authority doctrinally ; and to secure for that 
discussion when it comes, as it must come, at the Confer- 
ence, an atmosphere congenial not to controversy, but to 
agreement. This can be done only by facing the actual situa- 
tion in order to discover if any practical proposals could be 
made that would bring the Episcopal and Non-Episcopal 
Communions nearer to one another. Further, the proposals 
are offered not as a basis for immediate action, but for the 
sympathetic and generous consideration of all the Churches. 

The first fact which we agree to acknowledge is that the 
position of Episcopacy in the greater part of Christendom as 
the recognized organ of the unity and continuity of the 
Church is such that the members of the Episcopal Churches 
ought not to be expected to abandon it in assenting to any 
basis of reunion. 

The second fact which we agree to acknowledge is that 
there are a number of Christian Churches not accepting the 
Episcopal order which have been used by the Holy Spirit 
in His work of enlightening the world, converting sinners, 



APPENDIX 131 

and perfecting saints. They came into being through re- 
action from grave abuses in the Church at the time of their 
origin, and were led in response to fresh apprehensions of 
divine truth to give expression to certain types of Christian 
experience, aspiration and fellowship, and to secure rights 
of the Christian people which had been neglected or 

denied - ; , ,..L^i 

In view of these two facts, if the visible unity so much 
desired within the Church and so necessary for the testimony 
and influence of the Church in the world is ever to be real- 
ized, it is imperative that the Episcopal and Non-Episcopal 
Communions shall approach one another not by the method 
of human compromise, but in correspondence with God's 
own way of reconciling differences in Christ Jesus. What 
we desire to see is not grudging concession, but a willing 
acceptance for the common enrichment of the united Church 
of the wealth distinctive of each. 

Looking as frankly and as widely as possible at the whole 
situation, we desire with a due sense of responsibility to sub- 
mit for the serious consideration of all the parts of a divided 
Christendom what seem to us the necessary conditions of 
any possibility of reunion: 

1. That continuity with the historic Episcopate should be 
effectively preserved. 

2. That in order that the rights and responsibilities of 
the whole Christian community in the government of the 
Church may be adequately recognized, the Episcopate should 
re-assume a constitutional form, both as regards the method 
of the election of the bishop as by clergy and people, and 
the method of government after election. It is perhaps 
necessary that we should call to mind that such was the 
primitive ideal and practice of Episcopacy and it so remains 
in many Episcopal communions to-day. 

3. That acceptance of the fact of Episcopacy and not any 



I32 APPENDIX 

theory as to its character should be all that is asked for. 
We think that this may be the more easily taken for granted 
as the acceptance of any such theory is not now required 
of ministers of the Church of England. It would no doubt 
be necessary before any arrangement for corporate reunion 
could be made to discuss the exact functions which it may be 
agreed to recognize as belonging to the Episcopate, but we 
think this can be left to the future. 

The acceptance of Episcopacy on these terms should not 
involve any Christian community in the necessity of dis- 
owning its past, but should enable all to maintain the con- 
tinuity of their witness and influence as heirs and trustees 
of types of Christian thought, life and order, not only of 
value to themselves but of value to the Church as a whole. 
Accordingly we hope and desire that each of these Com- 
munions would bring its own distinctive contribution, not 
only to the common life of the Church, but also to its meth- 
ods of organization, and that all that is true in the experience 
and testimony of the uniting Communions would be con- 
served to the Church. Within such a recovered unity we 
should agree in claiming that the legitimate freedom of pro- 
phetic ministry should be carefully preserved ; and in antici- 
pating that many customs and institutions which have been 
developed in separate communities may be preserved within 
the larger unity of which they have come to form a part. 

We have carefully avoided any discussion of the merits 
of any polity, or any advocacy of one form in preference 
to another. All we have attempted is to show how reunion 
might be brought about, the conditions of the existing 
Churches and the convictions held regarding these questions 
by their members being what they are. As we are per- 
suaded that it is on these lines and these alone that the 
subject can be approached with any prospect of any meas- 
ure of agreement, we do earnestly ask the members of the 
Churches to which we belong to examine carefully our con- 



APPENDIX 133 

elusions and the facts on which they are based, and to give 
them all the weight that they deserve. 

In putting forward these proposals we do so because it 
must be felt by all good-hearted Christians as an intolerable 
burden to find themselves permanently separated in respect 
of religious worship and communion from those in whose 
characters and lives they recognize the surest evidences of 
the indwelling Spirit; and because, as becomes increasingly 
evident, it is only as a body, praying, taking counsel, and 
acting together, that the Church can hope to appeal to men 
as the Body of Christ, that is Christ's visible organ and in- 
strument in the world, in which the Spirit of brotherhood 
and of love as wide as humanity finds effective expression. 
(Signed) G. W. Bath: and Well: (Chairman). 

E. Winton: 

C. Oxon: 

W. T. Davison. 

A. E. Garvie. 

H. L. Goudge. 

J. Scott Lidgett. 

W. B. Selbie. 

J. H. Shakespeare. 

Eugene Stock. 

William Temple. 

Tissington Tatlow (Hon. Sec.) 

H. G. Wood. 
March, 1918. 



THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S PROPOSALS FOR RE- 
UNION BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ENG- 
LAND AND THE WESLEYAN METHODIST 
CHURCH 

An Extract from an Address by the Bishop of 
London, 1 February, 1919 

Now my suggestion is this: that after a certain date — 
we will call it the first of January, 1920, though we can 
hardly expect so early a date — all Ordinations should be 
so carried out by both Churches as would satisfy the members 
of them both. You see, the point is this — at once, so to 
speak, to " run a nick in," at once to get at a point after 
which the schism shall cease. If you can get first of all a 
date after which all ordinations will be considered valid by 
both bodies, you have, however long it takes, arrived at a 
point after which eventually and automatically the division 
between the two bodies will cease. 

Now, there would be no difficulty whatever from our 
point of view in this because we have always had presbyters 
to share with the Bishop the responsibility of ordination. 

t 1 This Address is one of two Addresses given by the Bishop 
of London, the first in Kingsway Hall, the second in the Crypt 
of St. Paul's Cathedral, February and March, 1919. They are 
printed together under the title of The Necessity and Hope for 
Christian Union and Problems of Re-Union, Wells Gardner, 
Darton & Co. The proposals contained in the Address are the 
result of two years' Conferences " of an informal character 
with the Wesleyan Church." These Conferences were attended 
by important members both of the Church of England and of 
the Wesleyan Church.] 

134 



APPENDIX 135 

This seemed to be a surprise to a body of Wesleyans whom 
I happened to speak to about it. At St. Paul's Cathedral, at 
ordinations, I always get as many as possible presbyters — 
or priests, as they are called in our Church — to lay their 
hands with me on the ordination candidates. Sometimes I 
have half a dozen, or even a dozen. Therefore the condi- 
tion would be no difficulty to us, because it is our practice 
already that with the Bishop there should be presbyters lay- 
ing their hands upon the candidates for ordination. But you 
would have to make this change in your ordinations, and with 
your presbyters there would be a Bishop. After all, when 
you come to think of it, there is nothing whatever in such 
a concession as that to upset any of your ideas. I am sure 
it would not have upset Wesley at all. This, then, is the 
first point, that there shall be, after a certain date, such 
ordinations in both bodies as shall satisfy the ideas — 
scruples, if you like — of members of both bodies. 

Then, the idea is that the Wesleyan Church in the reunited 
Church shall be conserved as an Order or Society or Con- 
nection, as it is: just as, if you will take an illustration, 
though I hope not in exactly the same way, as the Jesuit 
Order is part of and serves as an order in the Church of 
Rome. The Methodist Church would continue its class meet- 
ings and its Conferences. Mind you, we always have to look 
out for the enemy who will misrepresent us. The enemy 
will say that the Methodist Church is going to be absorbed 
into the Church of England; that is not at all what it is. 
The Methodist Church would retain its Connection and its 
order in the reunited Church, which is a very different story, 
and go on with its habits and its practices undisturbed. 

Of the Wesleyan presidents and superintendents, it is 
suggested that six or more, as is thought advisable, shall be 
ordained bishops, per saltum, as was proposed in the last 
Lambeth Conference with regard to Presbyterian ministers 
in Scotland. The object of this is partly to draw the two 



I36 APPENDIX 

bodies together, partly that it might make it easier for 
Wesleyan ministers who wished, in the manner I am about 
to describe, voluntarily at once to be ordained. They might 
prefer to be ordained by their Wesleyan bishops rather than 
by bishops of the Church of England, though I hope very 
much to have the pleasure and honor, if this proposed scheme 
should come into effect, to be allowed myself to take part 
in the ordination of the Wesleyan ministers, and not let the 
ordination be confined to those who had become Wesleyan 
bishops. The more we draw together the better. 

Well, up to now, you understand there does not seem to be 
any great objection or difficulty. But we come to the crux 
of the matter when we come to what we must call the transi- 
tional period. This transitional period depends on the 
longevity of the existing Wesleyan ministers. I hope they 
will live a long time, therefore I will give them all, say, forty 
years at any rate, from the appointed date. We have to 
think out what would happen during the interval between the 
date that we fixed and the time when shall have passed away 
the last Wesleyan minister who does not wish at once, as 
many will, to receive episcopal ordination, and therefore all 
the privilegs of a priest in the reunited Church. Some may 
not wish to do this and therefore we have to think out a 
plan of how the partially reunited, but not fully reunited 
Church, should work for those thirty or forty years. I do 
not myself feel it is very difficult to invent such a plan. All 
the Wesleyan ministers whom I have the honor of speaking 
to agree that if they are to be allowed, say, to celebrate the 
Holy Communion in St. Paul's Cathedral, or a parish church, 
they must be ordained by the bishop at once. That is to 
say, they feel quite clearly that our rules are such and our 
custom is such that it would entirely break up our Church 
if anything less were required. And a great many, you will 
find, would like very much the privilege of being admitted 
full priests and of celebrating in the old parish church, in 



APPENDIX 137 

perhaps the very place where they have been working, and 
would rejoice in the opportunity of being ordained soon after 
the date fixed without waiting for the full reunion, and would 
claim the privilege, and I hope the joy, of being from our 
point of view full priests in the reunited Church, with all the 
rights and duties which that would entail. 

Of course, if all were willing to do that, the matter is 
simple because we have not got to wait so long for the re- 
united Church. The more who are ordained the quicker the 
union comes. And just look at the way in which we should 
supplement, help one another. I should simply love to go 
round to the Wesleyan churches and preach the Gospel my- 
self, and should find a joy in putting myself side by side with 
those whose zeal and fervency I have admired for years. 
And you, my brothers, would find an added joy in celebrat- 
ing in some beautiful parish church a choral Eucharist. 
We should both get deeper joy from this union. 

Then what about those of the Wesleyan ministry who 
did not wish to be ordained? I should hold that we must 
draw up a standard of faith and doctrine upon which we 
should both agree, on the basis of the Creeds. There is very 
little difficulty about that with the Wesleyans. The Wes- 
leyan ministers who were not allowed to celebrate as priests 
in the church on accepting this should be welcomed in our 
pulpits. When we have drawn that up and arrived, on prin- 
ciple, at union, then I am for an exchange of pulpits. That 
is very different from exchange of pulpits now. We should 
welcome in such a reunited Church, and welcome gladly, as 
preachers the Wesleyan ministers — even if they were not re- 
ordained to celebrate the Communion — who would exercise 
their power of preaching. 

You would say, "How would you expect, Bishop, the 
Wesleyan minister, on the principle you laid down, to be 
ordained and not seem to disregard or deny his orders ? " 
By this suggested form of protestation, which has been ap- 



I38 APPENDIX 

proved by some leading High Churchmen as well as by lead- 
ing Wesleyans: 



Be it known to all men that the ordination of A B 
to the office of deacon (or priest) by So-and-So, Lord- 
Bishop of So-and-So, is not intended by either party 
to express adverse judgment on the spiritual value of the 
ministry previously exercised by him, but to provide for 
the future that his ministrations shall have all the au- 
thority committed by God to men for that office such as 
both parties may recognize without scruple. 

You see that declaration frees the consciences both of 
the Churchman and of the Wesleyan. It frees the con- 
science of the Wesleyan for he says : " Be it known unto 
all men " that he is not denying the grace of the Orders 
he has previously received. The very fact that this would 
be the recognized form of protestation, used before the serv- 
ice or in the service, is the safeguard that I said was neces- 
sary for the Wesleyan minister. It makes it quite clear that 
there is no denial on his part of the value of the Orders which 
he had received previously. 

Well, then we get to the rather more difficult question 
of Confirmation. Many Wesleyans greatly desire Confirma- 
tion fully restored in their Church. Confirmation, I must 
explain to those who do not realize it, is not looked upon 
by us as only a form by which the young candidate re- 
news his baptismal vows. That is not really the force of 
Confirmation in our opinion. Confirmation is the falling of 
the Holy Spirit on the candidate, and constitutes a fresh gift 
which he receives. He says, " I do this/' " I do that," but 
that is preliminary to the Confirmation, and therefore you 
will quite understand that when we place Confirmation as a 
condition of Communion, it is not merely that we are " fenc- 
ing the Table," but we believe that he does receive in Con- 



APPENDIX 139 

firmation fresh grace and strength to prepare him for the 
great privilege that is coming in his first Communion. 

When this body of representatives sent from the two 
Churches really meets, they will have to thrash out this 
question of the necessity of Confirmation. During those 
thirty or forty years — and mind you, it will only be for 
thirty or forty years — we shall have to decide this — 
whether the full members of the Wesleyan Church, who have 
passed all their tests, may be received at the Lord's Table 
without confirmation, and whether we shall carry our Church 
of England people with us, unless we say that he who comes 
to the Communion in the parish church must be confirmed 
first. That is just one of those points we shall have to de- 
cide, but do not tell me the whole thing is going to break 
down over that. I am unsettled in my own mind about it. 
It is one of those points about which I want to reserve my 
judgment. It is the only point of real difficulty. I am 
prepared to hear arguments on both sides. I am certain that 
after invoking the Holy Spirit at some such Conference of 
both bodies we shall arrive at a settlement on that issue. 

Well, I leave it at that point, as I am only able to give 
now this outline of the scheme. But if you ask what is to 
be gained by it, I answer, one rent less in the seamless robe 
of Christ. If we have mended that we shall save enormous 
waste. When we put our heads together, when the bishops 
of the Wesleyans and the bishops of the Church of England 
look into their buildings together, we shall be able to close 
this mission church of the Church of England or that mission 
church of the Wesleyans if they find that they are really 
competing with, and harming, one another. I hope some of 
those four little chapels in Canada will be shut up — I hope 
three will be, but at any rate we might close two. What 
I believe more than anything is, after all the talk there has 
been, a little action would stimulate the whole cause of 
Reunion throughout the world, that when once two such 



I40 APPENDIX 

great and respected bodies are united we might approach 
other bodies with the request — "Will you not join the re- 
united Church ?" The report on "Faith and. Order" — I 
have not time to quote it at length, but you will find it at 
the end of Mr. Shakespeare's book — the interim report of 
the sub-committee is the most hopeful report that you could 
possibly imagine. And that report leads us to hope that if 
two great bodies like our own really became one it would be 
of tremendous importance to Reunion throughout the world. 
I leave it thus. The necessity is a hard fact. The hope 
you may call a dream. But if you do I will reply in the 
words of the well known poem: 

Dreamer of dreams ! We take the taunt with gladness, 
Knowing that God, beyond the years we see, 

Has wrought the dream that counts with you for madness 
Into the texture of the world to be. 



THE BISHOP OF ZANZIBAR'S PROPOSALS, 1918 

The following account is given of a speech made at the 
Conference by the Bishop of Zanzibar. See pp. 7 and 8 of 
The Official Report of the Kikuyu Conference, ipi8 (C.M.S. 
Book Room, Salisbury Square, London). 

The speech followed immediately on the reading of the 
" Proposals for an Alliance of Missionary Societies in 
B.E.A." 

" The Chairman then invited Bishop Weston of Zanzibar, 
who had so kindly accepted the invitation to come to the 
Conference and take part in its gatherings, to address the 
delegates. The Bishop was most cordially received, and 
listened to with eager attention, as he placed before the 
Conference his view of the controversy which had arisen, 
and his present proposal for a united church as distinct from 
the proposals for an alliance of missionary societies — then 
before the Conference. In his address he set out his own 
proposals as follows : 

1. The acceptance of the fact of Christ's one Church, the 
Brotherhood of all Christians, into which we all enter by 
Baptism. 

2. The acceptance of the Church's Book, the Holy Bible, 
as God's Word. 

3. The acceptance of the Church's Creeds, the expression 
of the universal faith. 

4. The acceptance of the fact that Episcopacy has always 
existed, and is to-day in possession of the far greater part of 
Christendom. 

5. Episcopacy need not involve us in a monarchical, dio- 

141 



142 APPENDIX 

cesan episcopate. Many Bishops may serve one local church. 
The Bishops should be freely elected, and should rule with 
the clergy and laity. Nor is it essential that we hold any 
one view of episcopacy on the doctrinal side, provided the 
fact of its existence, and continuance, be admitted. 

6. Non-episcopal bodies accepting episcopacy would re- 
main in full exercise of their own constitutions, working 
parallel with the present episcopal churches. 

7. The acceptance of the principle of Sacramental Grace. 
The Gospel Sacraments, so-called, to be used by all, and all 
bodies to admit the liberty of Christians to those other rites, 
that the Bishop himself calls Sacraments. He pointed out 
that the laying-on of hands follows on Baptism. 

8. The acceptance of the principle of the Church's Disci- 
pline and Absolution, each body to decide how the Absolution 
be pronounced, whether before the whole people, or in pri- 
vate; and how the preceding confession be made. 

9. The acceptance of the principle of Corporate Worship, 
each body using the form and matter of Baptism, and a valid 
form of Consecration of the Sacrament of the Holy Com- 
munion. In the rest, both in administering Sacraments, 
and in other times of worship, each body to be left en- 
tirely free. 

" The Bishop assured the Conference that if the non- 
episcopal bodies would accept some such proposals as these, 
and consent to some Episcopal Consecration and ordination 
so as to enable them to minister, by invitation, in episcopal 
churches, he for his part would gladly come before any of 
their congregations, and accept any form of popular recogni- 
tion. 

" He could not move from his own position, or allow doubt 
to be cast upon his ministerial authority received by ordina- 
tion, and consecration. But if the Church's forms were held 
to be weak on the side of popular recognition, he would not 
refuse whatever the other bodies thought to be necessary 



APPENDIX 143 

to make his ministry among them acceptable. This he could 
do in good faith, since our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires 
a United Church, knows the thoughts and motives of our 
hearts. 

"He laid great stress upon freedom in worship, and did 
not hide from the Conference the wide tolerance it must 
exercise, if it desired to include Zanzibar Diocese in its 
scheme of reunion." 



THE CONCORDAT. PROPOSALS FOR AN AP- 
PROACH TOWARDS UNITY 

Prepared by Members of the Protestant Episcopal 

Church and of the Congregational Church 

in the United States, March, 1919 

The undersigned, members of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church and of Congregational Churches, without any official 
sanction and purely on our private initiative, have conferred 
with each other, partly by correspondence and partly by 
meeting, with a view to discover a method by which a prac- 
tical approach towards making clear and evident the visible 
unity of believers in our Lord according to His will, might 
be made. For there can be no question that such is our 
Lord's will. The Church itself in the midst of its divisions, 
bears convincing witness to it. " There is one Body and 
one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." There has 
never been, there can never be, more than one Body or one 
Baptism. On this we are agreed. There is one fellow- 
ship of the Baptized, made one by grace, and in every case by 
the self-same grace. And the unity given and symbolized by 
Baptism is in its very nature visible. 

We are agreed that it is our Lord's purpose that believers 
in Him should be one visible society. Into such a society, 
which we recognize as the Holy Catholic Church, they are 
initiated by Baptism; whereby they are admitted to fellow- 
ship with Him and with one another. The unity which is 
essential to His Church's effective witness and work in the 
world must express and maintain this fellowship. It cannot 
be fully realized without community of worship, faith, and 
order, including common participation in the Lord's Supper. 

144 



APPENDIX 145 

Such unity would be compatible with a rich diversity in life 
and worship. 

We have not discussed the origin of the episcopate his- 
torically or its authority doctrinally ; but we agree to acknowl- 
edge that the recognized position of the episcopate in the 
greater part of Christendom as the normal nucleus of the 
Church's ministry and as the organ of the unity and con- 
tinuity of the Church is such that the members of the epis- 
copal Churches ought not to be expected to abandon it in as- 
senting to any basis of reunion. 

We also agree to acknowledge that Christian Churches 
not accepting the episcopal order have been used by the 
Holy Spirit in His work of enlightening the world, con- 
verting sinners, and perfecting saints. They came into be- 
ing through reactions from grave abuses in the Church 
at the time of their origin, and were led in response to fresh 
apprehensions of divine truth to give expression to certain 
necessary and permanent types of Christian experience, as- 
piration and fellowship, and to secure rights of Christian 
people which had been neglected or denied. 

No Christian community is involved in the necessity of 
disowning its past; but it should bring its own distinctive 
contribution not only to the common life of the Church, but 
also to its methods of organization. Many customs and 
institutions which have been developed in separate com- 
munities may be preserved within the larger unity. What 
we desire to see is not grudging concession, but a willing 
acceptance of the treasures of each for the common en- 
richment of the united Church. 

To give full effect to these principles in relation to the 
Churches to which we respectively belong requires some 
form of corporate union between them. We greatly de- 
sire such corporate union. We also are conscious of the 
difficulties in the way of bringing it about, including the 
necessity for corporate action, even with complete good- 



I46 APPENDIX 

will on both sides. In this situation we believe that a prac- 
tical approach toward eventual union may be made by the 
establishment of intercommunion in particular instances. 
It is evident to us that corporate union between bodies whose 
members have become so related will thereby be facilitated. 
Mutual understanding and sympathy will strongly reinforce 
the desire to be united in a common faith and order, and will 
make clearer how the respective contributions of each com- 
munity can best be made available to all. 

We recognize as a fact, without discussing whether it is 
based upon sound foundations, that in the Episcopal Churches 
an apprehension exists that if episcopally-conferred orders 
were added to the authority which non-episcopal ministers 
have received from their own communions, such orders 
might not be received and used in all cases in the sense or 
with the intention with which they are conferred. Upon 
this point there ought to be no room for doubt. The sense 
or intention in which any particular order of the ministry 
is conferred or accepted is the sense or intention in which 
it is held in the Universal Church. In conferring or in 
accepting such ordination neither the bishop ordaining nor 
the minister ordained should be understood to impugn thereby 
the efficacy of the minister's previous ministry. 

The like principle applies to the ministration of sacra- 
ments. The minister acts not merely as the representative 
of the particular congregation then present, but in a larger 
sense he represents the Church Universal; and his intention 
and meaning should be our Lord's intention and meaning as 
delivered to and held by the Catholic Church. To this end 
such sacramental matter and form should be used as shall 
exhibit the intention of the Church. 

When communion has been established between the or- 
daining bishop of the Episcopal Church and the ordained 
minister of another communion, appropriate measures ought 
to be devised to maintain it by participating in the sacra- 



APPENDIX 147 

ment of the Lord's Supper and by mutual counsel and co- 
operation. 

We are not unmindful that occasions may arise when it 
might become necessary to take cognizance of supposed error 
of faith or of conduct, and suitable provisions ought to be 
made for such cases. 

In view of the limitations imposed by the law and practice 
of the Episcopal Church upon its bishops with regard to or- 
dination, and the necessity of obtaining the approval of the 
General Convention of the Episcopal Church to the pro- 
ject we have devised, a form of canonical sanction has been 
prepared which is appended as a schedule to this statement. 
We who are members of the Episcopal Church are prepared 
to recommend its enactment. We who are members of Con- 
gregational Churches regard it as a wise basis upon which 
in the interests of Church unity, and without sacrifice on 
either side, the supplementary ordination herein contemplated 
might be accepted. 

It is our conviction that such procedure as we here out- 
line is in accordance, as far as it goes, with our Lord's pur- 
poses for His Church; and our fond hope is that it would 
contribute to heal the Church's divisions. In the mission 
field it might prove of great value in uniting the work. 
In small communities it might put an end to the familiar 
scandal of more churches than the spiritual needs of the peo- 
ple require. In the army and navy, chaplains so ordained 
could minister acceptably to the adherents of Christian bod- 
ies who feel compunctions about the regularity of a non- 
episcopal ministry. In all places an example of a practical 
approach to Christian unity, with the recognition of diversi- 
ties in organization and in worship, would be held up before 
the world. The will to unity would be strengthened, preju- 
dices would be weakened, and the way would become open in 
the light of experience to bring about a more complete or- 
ganic unity of Christian Churches. 



I48 APPENDIX 

While this plan is the result of conference in which mem- 
bers of only one denomination of non-episcopal Churches 
have taken part, it is comprehensive enough to include in its 
scope ministers of all other non-episcopal communions; and 
we earnestly invite their sympathetic consideration and con- 
currence. 

New York, March 12, 1919. 

Boyd Vincent, Bishop of Southern Ohio. 

Philip M. Rhinelander, Bishop of Pennsylvania. 

Wm. Cabell Brown, Bishop of Virginia. 

Hughell Fosbroke, Dean of the Gen. Theol. Seminary. 

William T. Manning, Rector of Trinity Church, New York. 

Charles L. Slattery, Rector of Grace Church, New York. 

Howard B. St. George, Professor in Nashotah Seminary. 

Francis Lynde Stetson. 

Robert H. Gardiner. 

George Zabriskie, Chancellor of the Diocese of New York. 
Hon. Sec, 23 Gramercy Park, New York. 

William H. Day, Moderator of Congregational National 
Council. 

Hubert C. Herring, Sec. of National Council. 

Charles F. Carter, Chairman of Ex. Committee of Na- 
tional Council. 

Williston Walker, of the Commission on Organization. 

Herbert S. Smith, of Commission on Unity. 

William E. Barton, of Commission on Organization. 

Nehemiah Boynton, Ex. Moderator of National Council. 

Raymond Calkins, Chairman of Congregational Commis- 
sion on Unity. 

Arthur F. Pratt, Sec. of Commission on Unity. 

William T. McElveen, of Commission on Unity. 

Newman Smyth, of Commission on Unity. Hon. Sec, 54 
Trumbull Street, New Haven, Conn. 



APPENDIX 149 

Schedule 
form of proposed canon 

§ I. In case any minister who has not received episcopal 
ordination shall desire to be ordained by a Bishop of this 
Church to the Diaconate and to the Priesthood without giv- 
ing up or denying his membership or his ministry in the 
Communion to which he belongs, the Bishop of the Diocese 
or Missionary District in which he lives, with the advice 
and consent of the Standing Committee or the Council of 
Advice, may confirm and ordain him. 

§ II. The minister desiring to be so ordained shall sat- 
isfy the Bishop that he has resided in the United States at 
least one year; that he has been duly baptized with water in 
the name of the Trinity; that he holds the historic faith of 
the Church as contained in the Apostles' Creed and the 
Nicene Creed; that there is no sufficient objection on grounds 
physical, mental, moral or spiritual; and that the ecclesi- 
astical authority to which he is subject in the Communion 
to which he belongs consents to such ordination. 

§ III. At the time of his ordination the person to be 
ordained shall subscribe and make in the presence of the 
Bishop a declaration that he believes the Holy Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God 
and to contain all things necessary to salvation; that in the 
ministration of Baptism he will unfailingly baptize with 
water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost; and (if he is being ordained to the Priesthood) 
that in the celebration of the Holy Communion he will in- 
variably use the elements of bread and wine, and will in- 
clude in the service the words and acts of our Lord in the 
institution of the Sacrament, the Lord's Prayer, and (un- 
less one of these Creeds has been used in the service imme- 
diately preceding the celebration of the Holy Communion) 



150 APPENDIX 

the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed as the symbol of the faith 
of the Holy Catholic Church; that when thereto invited 
by the Bishop of this Church having jurisdiction in the 
place where he lives, he will (unless unavoidably prevented) 
meet with such Bishop for Communion and for counsel and 
cooperation; and that he will hold himself answerable to 
the Bishop of this Church having jurisdiction in the place 
where he lives, or, if there be no such Bishop, to the Pre- 
siding Bishop of this Church, in case he be called in question 
with respect to error of faith or of conduct. 

§ IV. In case a person so ordained be charged with 
error of faith or of conduct he shall have reasonable notice 
of the charge and reasonable opportunity to be heard, and 
the procedure shall be similar to the procedure in the case 
of a clergyman of this Church charged with the like of- 
fense. The sentence shall always be pronounced by the 
Bishop and shall be such as a clergyman of this Church 
would be liable to. It shall be certified to the ecclesiastical 
authority to which the defendant is responsible in any other 
Communion. If he shall have been tried before a tribunal of 
the Communion in which he has exercised his ministry, the 
judgment of such tribunal proceeding in the due exercise of 
its jurisdiction shall be taken as conclusive evidence of facts 
thereby adjudged. 

§ V. A minister so ordained may officiate in a Diocese 
or Missionary District of this Church when licensed by the 
ecclesiastical authority thereof, but he shall not become the 
Rector or a minister of any parish or congregation of this 
Church until he shall have subscribed and made to the Ordi- 
nary a declaration in writing whereby he shall solemnly en- 
gage to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of 
this Church. Upon his making such declaration and being 
duly elected Rector or minister of a parish or congrega- 
tion of this Church, and complying with the canons of this 
Church and of the Diocese or Missionary District in that 



APPENDIX 151 

behalf, he shall become for all purposes a Minister of this 
Church. 

Resolutions Adopted by the General Convention 

Whereas, at sundry times in past years, and especially 
in 1853, m 1880, and in 1886, this General Convention, and 
the House of Bishops thereof, did set forth certain declara- 
tions relating to the Unity of the Church and the steps which, 
under God, might be taken to lead to such Unity; 

And whereas, there have now been laid before General 
Convention certain " Proposals for an Approach towards 
Unity/' to which are attached the signatures of distinguished 
members of Congregational Churches and of this Church, 
which proposals ask for the enactment of appropriate legis- 
lation whereby a Bishop may be authorized to confer the or- 
ders of the Diaconate and the Priesthood upon Ministers 
who have not received Episcopal ordination, under certain 
conditions therein enumerated; 

And whereas, these Proposals afford a hopeful basis for 
negotiations looking toward that end, 

Be it Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring: 

I. That the General Convention recognizes with pro- 
found gratitude to Almighty God the earnest desire of these 
representative members of Congregational Churches and of 
this Church to find a way by which the first step towards 
eventual Church unity may be taken, and especially the 
irenic attitude of those who are not in communion with this 
Church, but who have indicated their desire to enter into 
certain relations with it for the furtherance of that unity 
for which we together pray. 

II. That as a step toward the accomplishment of so 
great a purpose, this Church hereby declares its willing- 
ness to initiate action which may make possible the ordina- 
tion as Deacons and as Priests of Ministers in other Chris- 
tian bodies who accept the Holy Scriptures as the revealed 



152 APPENDIX 

Word of God, the Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement 
of the Christian Faith, and the Sacraments of Baptism and 
the Supper of the Lord, under conditions which are stated 
in the aforementioned Proposals for an Approach toward 
Unity, whenever evidence shall be laid by any such appli- 
cant Minister before the Bishop of this Church having juris- 
diction in the place in which such Minister resides of his 
acceptance of the principles set forth in those Proposals. 

We, however, direct the Joint Commission to be consti- 
tuted that in proposing such legislation the following points 
shall be carefully considered: 

(a) That the Congregation, if any, in which such Min- 
ister officiates shall declare through its accustomed rep- 
resentatives its desire for such ordination on behalf of its 
Minister and its purpose to receive in future the ministra- 
tions and the sacraments of one who shall have been ordained 
to the Priesthood by a Bishop. 

(b) That every Minister so ordained shall, in celebrating 
Holy Communion, invariably incorporate in a Prayer of 
Consecration the Words of Our Lord in instituting that 
Sacrament, and also a suitable Oblation and Invocation of 
the Holy Spirit. 

(c) That he shall in no case administer the Holy Com- 
munion to an unbaptized person. And this Church will hope- 
fully anticipate the use of the Apostolic practice of Con- 
firmation. 

III. That a Joint Commission of five Bishops, five Pres- 
byters, and five Laymen be appointed to continue confer- 
ence with the Congregational Signatories to the said " Pro- 
posals/' and to report to the next General Convention. 



PLAN OF UNION ADOPTED BY THE AMERICAN 

COUNCIL ON ORGANIC UNION OF 

CHURCHES OF CHRIST 

Held in Witherspoon Hall, Philadelphia, Pa. 
February 3-6, 1920 

This Council instructs the Ad Interim Committee to pre- 
sent the Plan to the supreme governing or advisory bodies 
of the several communions in such manner as the Committee 
shall devise and at its discretion to such other evangelical 
denominations as may not here be represented. 

William H. Roberts, President, Witherspoon Build- 
ing, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Rufus W. Miller, Secretary, 15th and Race Streets, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Preamble: 

Whereas : We desire to share, as a common heritage, the 
faith of the Christian Church, which has, from time to time, 
found expression in great historic statements; and 

Whereas: We all share belief in God our Father; in Jesus 
Christ, His only Son, our Saviour; in the Holy Spirit, our 
Guide and Comforter ; in the Holy Catholic Church, through 
which God's eternal purpose of salvation is to be proclaimed 
and the Kingdom of God is to be realized on earth; in the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing 
God's revealed will, and in the life eternal; and 

Whereas: Having the same spirit and owning the same 
Lord, we none the less recognize diversity of gifts and min- 
istrations for whose exercise due freedom must always be 
afforded in forms of worship and in modes of operation : 

153 



154 APPENDIX 

Plan: 

Now, we the Churches hereto assenting as hereinafter 
provided in Article VI do hereby agree to associate ourselves 
in a visible body to be known as the " United Churches of 
Christ in America/' for the furtherance of the redemptive 
work of Christ in the world. This body shall exercise in 
behalf of the constituent Churches the functions delegated 
to it by this instrument, or by subsequent action of the con- 
stituent Churches, which shall retain the full freedom at 
present enjoyed by them in all matters not so delegated. 

Accordingly, the Churches hereto assenting and hereafter 
thus associated in such visible body do mutually covenant and 
agree as follows: 

I. Autonomy in purely denominational affairs. 

In the interest of the freedom of each and of the coopera- 
tion of all, each constituent Church reserves the right to re- 
tain its credal statements, its form of government in the 
conduct of its own affairs, and its particular mode of wor- 
ship: 

In taking this step, we look forward with confident hope to 
that complete unity toward which we believe the Spirit of 
God is leading us. Once we shall have cooperated whole- 
heartedly, in such visible body, in the holy activities of the 
work of the Church, we are persuaded that our differences 
will be minimized and our union become more vital and ef- 
fectual. 

II. The Council. (How Constituted.) 

The United Churches of Christ in America shall act 
through a Council and through such Executive and Judicial 
Commissions, or Administrative Boards, working ad interim, 
as such Council may from time to time appoint and ordain. 

The Council shall convene as provided for in Article VI 
and every second year thereafter. It may also be convened 



APPENDIX 155 

at any time in such manner as its own rules may prescribe. 
The Council shall be a representative body. 

Each constituent Church shall be entitled to representation 
therein by an equal number of ministers and of lay mem- 
bers. 

The basis of representation shall be: two ministers and 
two lay members for the first one hundred thousand or 
fraction thereof of its communicants; and two ministers and 
two lay members for each additional one hundred thou- 
sand or major fraction thereof. 

III. The Council. (Its Working.) 

The Council shall adopt and promulgate its own By-Laws 
and rules of procedure and order. It shall define the func- 
tions of its own officers, prescribe the mode of their selec- 
tion and their compensation, if any. It shall provide for its 
budget of expense by equitable apportionment of the same 
among the constituent Churches through their supreme gov- 
erning or advisory bodies. 

IV. Relation of Council and Constituent Churches. 

The supreme governing or advisory bodies of the constit- 
uent Churches shall effectuate the decisions of the Council 
by general or specific deliverance or other mandate when- 
ever it may be required by the law of a particular state, 
or the charter of a particular Board, or other ecclesiastical 
corporation; but, except as limited by this Plan, shall con- 
tinue the exercise of their several powers and functions as 
the same exist under the denominational constitution. 

The Council shall give full faith and credit to the authen- 
ticated acts and records of the several governing or advisory 
bodies of the constituent Churches. 

V. Specific Functions of the Council. 

In order to prevent overlapping, friction, competition or 



156 APPENDIX 

waste in the work of the existing denominational boards or 
administrative agencies, and to further the efficiency of that 
degree of cooperation which they have already achieved 
in their work at home and abroad: 

(a) The Council shall harmonize and unify the work of 
the United Churches. 

(b) It shall direct such consolidation of their missionary 
activities as well as of particular Churches in over-churched 
areas as is consonant with the law of the land or of the par- 
ticular denomination affected. Such consolidation may be 
progressively achieved, as by the uniting of the boards or 
Churches of any two or more constituent denominations, or 
may be accelerated, delayed, or dispensed with, as the in- 
terests of the Kingdom of God may require. 

(c) If and when any two or more constituent Churches, 
by their supreme governing or advisory bodies, submit to 
the Council for its arbitrament any matter of mutual concern, 
not hereby already covered, the Council shall consider and 
pass upon such matter so submitted. 

(d) The Council shall undertake inspirational and educa- 
tional leadership of such sort and measure as may be proper, 
under the powers delegated to it by the constituent Churches 
in the fields of Evangelism, Social Service, Religious Educa- 
tion, and the like. 

VI. The assent of each constituent Church to this Plan 
shall be certified from its supreme governing or advisory 
body by the appropriate officers thereof to the Chairman of 
the Ad Interim Committee, which shall have power upon a 
two-thirds vote to convene the Council as soon as the as- 
sent of at least six denominations shall have been so certified. 

VII. Amendments. 

This plan of organic union shall be subject to amendment 
only by the constituent Churches, but the Council may over- 
ture to such bodies any amendment which shall have origin- 



APPENDIX 157 

ated in said Council and shall have been adopted by a three- 
fourths vote. 

Note: The Churches represented in the Council were the 
Armenian, Baptist, The Christian Church, Christian Union 
of United States, Congregational, Disciples, Evangelical 
Synod of North America, Friends (two branches), Methodist 
(Primitive), Methodist Episcopal, Moravian, Presbyterian 
Church in United States of America, Protestant Episcopal, 
Reformed Episcopal, Reformed Church in the United States, 
United Presbyterian, Welsh Presbyterian. 

" The attention of the constituent Churches is called to the 
fact that the assent called for by Article VI of the Plan 
should be secured in conformity with the constitution of each 
constituent Church. 



DECLARATION ON THE REUNION OF 
CHRISTENDOM 

Issued by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Angli- 
can Communion Assembled in Conference at 
Lambeth Palace, August, 1920 

An appeal to all christian people 

We, Archbishops, Bishops, Metropolitans, and other 
Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church in full communion 
with the Church of England, in Conference assembled, real- 
izing the responsibility which rests upon us at this time, 
and sensible of the sympathy and the prayers of many, both 
within and without our own Communion, make this appeal to 
all Christian people. 

We acknowledge all those who believe in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and have been baptized into the name of the Holy 
Trinity, as sharing with us membership in the universal 
Church of Christ which is His Body. We believe that the 
Holy Spirit has called us in a very solemn and special man- 
ner to associate ourselves in penitence and prayer with all 
those who deplore the divisions of Christian people, and are 
inspired by the vision and hope of a visible unity of the 
whole Church. 

I. We believe that God wills fellowship. By God's own 
act this fellowship was made in and through Jesus Christ, 
and its life is in His Spirit. We believe that it is God's 
purpose to manifest this fellowship, so far as this world is 
concerned, in an outward, visible, and united society, holding 
one faith, having its own recognized officers, using God- 

158 



APPENDIX 159 

given means of grace, and inspiring all its members to the 
world-wide service of the Kingdom of God. This is what 
we mean by the Catholic Church. 

II. This united fellowship is not visible in the world to- 
day. On the one hand there are other ancient episcopal 
Communions in East and West, to whom ours is bound by 
many ties of common faith and tradition. On the other 
hand there are the great non-episcopal Communions, stand- 
ing for rich elements of truth, liberty, and life which might 
otherwise have been obscured or neglected. With them we 
are closely linked by many affinities, racial, historical, and 
spiritual. We cherish the earnest hope that all these Com- 
munions, and our own, may be led by the Spirit into the 
unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. 
But in fact we are all organized in different groups, each 
one keeping to itself gifts that rightly belong to the whole 
fellowship, and tending to live its own life apart from the 
rest. 

III. The causes of division lie deep in the past, and are 
by no means simple or wholly blameworthy. Yet none can 
doubt that self-will, ambition, and lack of charity among 
Christians have been principal factors in the mingled process, 
and that these, together with blindness to the sin of disunion, 
are still mainly responsible for the breaches of Christendom. 
We acknowledge this condition of broken fellowship to be 
contrary to God's will, and we desire frankly to confess our 
share in the guilt of thus crippling the Body of Christ and 
hindering the activity of His Spirit. 

IV. The times call us to a new outlook and new measures. 
The Faith cannot be adequately apprehended and the battle 
of the Kingdom cannot be worthily fought while the body is 
divided, and is thus unable to grow up into the fullness of the 
life of Christ. The time has come, we believe, for all the 
separated groups of Christians to agree in forgetting the 
things which are behind and reaching out towards the goal 



l6o APPENDIX 

of a reunited Catholic Church. The removal of the barriers 
which have arisen between them will only be brought about 
by a new comradeship of those whose faces are definitely set 
this way. 

The vision which rises before us is that of a Church, gen- 
uinely Catholic, loyal to all Truth, and gathering into its 
fellowship all " who profess and call themselves Christians," 
within whose visible unity all the treasures of faith and 
order, bequeathed as a heritage by the past to the present, 
shall be possessed in common, and made serviceable to the 
whole Body of Christ. Within this unity Christian Com- 
munions now separated from one another would retain much 
that has long been distinctive in their methods of worship 
and service. It is through a rich diversity of life and devo- 
tion that the unity of the whole fellowship will be fulfilled. 

V. This means an adventure of goodwill and still more of 
faith, for nothing less is required than a new discovery of 
the creative resources of God. To this adventure we are 
convinced that God is now calling all the members of His 
Church. 

VI. We believe that the visible unity of the Church will be 
found to involve the whole-hearted acceptance of: 

The Holy Scriptures, as the record of God's revelation of 
Himself to man, and as being the rule and ultimate standard 
of faith ; and the Creed commonly called Nicene, as the suffi- 
cient statement of the Christian faith, and either it or the 
Apostles' Creed as the Baptismal confession of belief: 

The divinely instituted sacraments of Baptism and the 
Holy Communion, as expressing for all the corporate life of 
the whole fellowship in and with Christ: 

A ministry acknowledged by every part of the Church as 
possessing not only the inward call of the Spirit, but also the 
commission of Christ and the authority of the whole body. 

VII. May we not reasonably claim that the episcopate is 



APPENDIX l6l 

the one means of providing such a ministry? It is not that 
we call in question for a moment the spiritual reality of the 
ministries of those communions which do not possess the 
episcopate. On the contrary we thankfully acknowledge that 
these ministries have been manifestly blessed and owned by 
the Holy Spirit as effective means of grace. But we submit 
that considerations alike of history and of present experience 
justify the claim which we make on behalf of the episcopate. 
Moreover, we would urge that it is now and will prove to be 
in the future the best instrument for maintaining the unity 
and continuity of the Church. But we greatly desire that 
the office of a bishop should be everywhere exercised in a 
representative and constitutional manner, and more truly 
express all that ought to be involved for the life of the 
Christian Family in the title of Father-in-God. Nay more, 
we eagerly look forward to the day when through its ac- 
ceptance in a united Church we may all share in that grace 
which is pledged to the members of the whole body in the 
apostolic rite of the laying-on of hands, and in the joy and 
fellowship of a Eucharist in which as one family we may 
together, without any doubtfulness of mind, offer to the one 
Lord our worship and service. 

VIII. We believe that, for all, the truly equitable approach 
to union is by the way of mutual deference to one another's 
consciences. To this end, we who send forth this appeal 
would say that if the authorities of other Communions should 
so desire, we are persuaded that, terms of union having been 
otherwise satisfactorily adjusted, bishops and clergy of our 
communion would willingly accept from these authorities a 
form of commission or recognition which would commend 
our ministry to their congregations, as having its place in 
the one family life. It is not in our power to know how far 
this suggestion may be acceptable to those to whom we offer 
it. We can only say that we offer it in all sincerity as a 
token of our longing that all ministries of grace, theirs and 



1 62 APPENDIX 

ours, shall be available for the service of our Lord in a 
united Church. 

It is our hope that the same motive would lead ministers 
who have not received it to accept a commission through 
episcopal ordination, as obtaining for them a ministry 
throughout the whole fellowship. 

In so acting no one of us could possibly be taken to repu- 
diate his past ministry. God forbid that any man should 
repudiate a past experience rich in spiritual blessings for 
himself and others. Nor would any of us be dishonoring the 
Holy Spirit of God, whose call led us all to our several minis- 
tries, and whose power enabled us to perform them. We 
shall be publicly and formally seeking additional recognition 
of a new call to wider service in a reunited Church, and im- 
ploring for ourselves God's grace and strength to fulfill the 
same. 

IX. The spiritual leadership of the Catholic Church in 
days to come, for which the world is manifestly waiting, de- 
pends upon the readiness with which each group is prepared 
to make sacrifices for the sake of a common fellowship, a 
common ministry, and a common service to the world. 

We place this ideal first and foremost before ourselves 
and our own people. We call upon them to make the effort 
to meet the demands of a new age with a new outlook. To 
all other Christian people whom our words may reach we 
make the same appeal. We do not ask that any one Com- 
munion should consent to be absorbed in another. We do 
ask that all should unite in a new and great endeavor to 
recover and to manifest to the world the unity of the Body 
of Christ for which He prayed. 



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